\\ 




Glass. 



Book 



THE EDWIN C. DINWIDDE 

COLLECTION OF BOOKS ON 

TEMPERANCE AND ALLIED SUBJECTS 

(PRESENTED BY MRS. DINWIDDIE) 



TEMPERANCE SERMONS 



DELIVERED 



IN RESPONSE TO AN INVITATION 



THE NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY 



PUBLICATION HOUSE. 



New York: 
The National Temperance Society and Publication House, 

No 58 READE STREET. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, ^j 

J. N. SI EARNS, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



Gift 

MRS. Etfwin C. Diflwidrfie 
Au«. 6. 1935 






CONTENTS. 



• ♦ • 



I. PAGE. 

Common Sense for Young Men 9 

By Rev. Henry "Ward Beecher, Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. 

II. 

Moral Duty of Total Abstinence, 35 

By Rev. T. L. Cuvler, D.D., Lafayette Avenue Church. BrooklTS. 

lU. 
The Evil Beast, r ftf 

By Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D.D., Brooklyn Tabernaci* 

IV. 

The Good Samaritan, 73 

By Rev. J. B. Dunn. Beach Street Presbyterian Church, Boston. 

V. 

Self-Denial : A Duty and a Pleasure, . . . loi 

By Rev. J. P. Newman, D.D,, Chaplain of the United States 
Senate. 

VI. 

The Church and Temperance, 121 

By Rev. John W. Mears, D.D,, Professor at Hamilton College, 
New York. 

VII. 
Active Pity of a Queen, 147 

By Rev. John Hall, D.D., Nineteenth Presbyterian Church, 
Fifth Avenue, New York. 

VIII. 
Temperance and the Pulpit, .... . 169 

By Rev. C. D. Foss, D.D., St. Paul's M. E. Church, Fourth 
Avenue. New York, 



Contents, 



IX. 

The Evils of Intemperance 191 

By Rev. J. Romeyn Berry, D.D., Mont Clair, New Jersey. 

X. 

Liberty and Love, 213 

By Rev. Henry Ward Bbbchsr, Plymouth Church, BrooMyn. 



XII. 
Stuange Children 349 

By Rev. Peter Strvkbr, D.D., First Presbyterian Church, Rome, 

N.Y. 

XIII. 
The Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol, . . 369 
By Rev. C. H. Fowler. Centenary M. E. Church, Chicago, ill. 

XIV. 
Drintcing for Health, . . . . • . 297 

By Rev. H. C. Fish, D.D., First Baptist Church, Newark, N. J 

XV. 

Scientific Certainties (not Opinions) about Alcohol, 329 

\ Dr. Sewall's stomach plates. By Rev. H. 
/hurch Street M. E. Church, Philadelphia. 



Containing Dr. Sewall's stomach plates. By Rev. H. W. Warren, 
D.D.,Church Street M. E. Church, Philac " 



XVI. 

My Name is Legion, 351 

By Rev. S. H. Tyng, D.D.,St. George's (Episcopal) Chuich,Ncw 
York. 

I 

= XVII. 

The Christian Serving His Generation, . . 377 

By Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., Broadway Tabernacle (Con- 
gregational), New York. 



Common Sense for Young Men 



SUBJECT OF TEMPERANCE. 



"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but tlie ends thereof 
are the ways of death." — Prov. xiv. 12. 

'T^HIS is peculiarly applicable to those who 
X are young, who are going, as it were, along 
unknown paths, and who see, branching out to 
the right or to the left, roads planted with flowers, 
overhung with vines, and full of tempting sights 
and beckoning pleasures, all of which look to 
them secure and most joyful. But these roads, 
once entered upon, are difficult to leave ; and the 
sights that tempted them, and the pleasures that 
beckoned them, are gradually exchanged for hard- 
er and harder fates. The smooth road soon be- 
comes precipitous, the easy and apparently safe 
course soon becomes full of peril, and at last 
they are plunged into remediless destruction. 

This is the career of thousands. They enter 
upon ways which are enticing, which are covered 
with beauty, which promise great remuneration 



10 Common Sense for Young Men 

which fulfil only in part the things promised, anc 
which, having deluded them, at last destroy them. 

There are a great many such ways, but there is 
only one of them which I propose to speak upon, 
to night, and that is the way of the drinker. 

It is a part of every Christian minister's duty 
to keep his congregation instructed on the subject 
oi temperance from the Christian point of view. 
It is especially my duty, because this church has, 
from its very foundation, reckoned the cause of 
temperance as a part of the great Christian move- 
ment of the world. It is my duty, because m 
many wavs a generation has come up in our midst 
without that special and sedulous training which 
we had in our youth. Those who are at about 
my time of life remember the beginning of this 
education, and how strong and various were the 
influences and impulses and instruments by which 
the attention of the community was aroused. 
There was, first, novelty ; and then, at last, fashion 
and public sentiment concurred. This movement 
has run through one generation, and also has run 
through a kind of moral period, and a reaction 
has come on, and a generation of young persons 
have arisen who are less informed, perhaps, on 
this subject, than those who immediately preceded 
them. It becomes important, therefore, that 
churches and ministers should renew the instruc- 
tion of the young on the dangers of drinking. 

I do not propose to go into a denunciatory tirade 
against liquor dealers, or against dram shops, or 
against the drinking usages of society. I propose, 



on the Subject of Temperance. n 

to-night, to speak to the young men of my charge, 
and to the community, in so far as my words may 
be borne out to them ; and I propose to speak as 
an elder brother, and to address this subject, with 
all moderation, and yet with all earnestness, to 
their best judgment. I do not propose to carry 
you. away by exciting your feelings ; but I propose, 
if possible, to convince you through your reason- 
ing faculties. And I ask you to consider the sub- 
ject of entire abstinence from all that intoxicates, 
from motives which bear upon your personal wel- 
fare, from motives which bear upon the welfare 
of the society in which you live, and from motives 
w^hich spring from religion itself. And I remark, 
I. A healthy nature never craves intoxicat- 
ing drinks. Men are not drawn to the use 
of intoxicating drinks as they are drawn to the 
use of food, or ordinary drinks. I suppose that 
ninety -nine in a hundred of the men that drink, 
learn-ed, and had to learn, to love intoxicating 
beverages ; and I suppose that those who indulge 
in them most, and most ruinously, have to do it 
with a testimony that they are not palatable. You 
are not, therefore, called to follow any great in- 
stinct in drinking. The sin of indulging in intoxi- 
cating drinks is not like a passional sin ; it is not 
like obedience to some master-passion that lies 
within demanding gratification. There is no such 
excuse for men who drink as that of natural hun- 
ger or thirst. Men may be naturally hungry or 
thirsty, but men are not by nature thirsty for 
wine, nor for whiskey, nor for brandy, nor for any 



12 Common Sense for Young Men 

other compound ; so that in drinking there is no 
obedience on the part of men to any radical in- 
stinct or radical impulse. 

Hence, the use of intoxicating drinks is not 
necessary. It is not prompted by anything that 
is natural in yourself. If you say : " Yes, I have 
a natural craving for it," then to you I say : That 
IS the very reason why you should not take it. 
If you have no craving for it, why should you 
cumber yourself with it ? And if yon have such 
a craving, surely, if you are wise, you will not put 
yourself in peril by indulging it. If you have 
the appetite in you, then by all means, unless you 
are utterly reckless in regard to 3'our own wel- 
fare, you will take warning, and shun the danger 
which threatens you. 

2. Alcoholic stimulants are not needful. Not 
only does a desire for them not spring from any 
constitutional impulse or necessity, but experience 
has shown that they are not needful as elements 
of diet. I do not undertake to say that they have 
no place medicinally. I express a well- matured 
judgment when I say that I think they have been 
employed medicinally in a manner that is very 
rash, and that is not scientific ; but I do not pro- 
pose to interfere with the doctors' sphere, except 
to express the wish that they might study the 
moral interests of their patients as much as they 
do their physical well-being, and as little as possi- 
ble put men under temptation by prescriptions 
which require the continuous use of alcoholic 
Stimulants. That they are to be excluded wholly 



on the Subject of Temperance, 13 

from the range of medicine, I do not undertake to 
say ; that I would not employ them under medical 
prescription, I do not undertake to say ; but I do 
undertake to say that, except as medicine, they 
are not necessary. They are not needful for 
health, and they are not needful for strength. 
They are not a part of a man's normal diet. You 
are not, therefore, required to indulge in them for 
the same reason that you are required to indulge 
m meat, or in bread, or in milk, or in water. 

3. Alcoholic stimulants are not usually palat- 
able. Young men who drink seldom love at 
first what they drink. They serve an apprentice- 
ship to a bad habit. I have alluded to this al- 
ready ; but there is in it a still further point to be 
developed. There are many things that men do 
which they do not like to do, and for which they 
have no natural appetite ; but then, they gain 
something by doing them that is worth the toil 
required to overcome the barriers that surround 
them. Very few there are who like the methodic- 
al industry which is required to master a trade. 
So young men are obhged to do what they do not 
want to do, and are kept from doing what they 
want to do. The result is that, at the end of five 
or seven years of apprenticeship, they have learned 
what is equivalent to the labor which they have 
performed during those years. 

The young man who studies a profession, studies 
against his will a great deal of the time ; or rather, 
he obliges himself by his will to study for the sake 
of that which he will gain b)^ study. 



^4 Common Sense for Young Men 

And so we are continually, in one sense, going 
against nature ; that is, we are continually going 
against the lower nature for the sake of the higher^ 
There is an upper or spirit nature, and there is a 
lower or flesh nature ; and the upper demands the 
denial of the lower. When, therefoix, men study 
long for a professional life, or practise long with 
the hand for an artist or artisan life, the}^ go 
against their natural tendenc}'. And they gain 
something that is worth all the self-denial and all 
the painstaking to which the}^ subject themselves. 
But when men learn to love drink, for which thej 
have no natural appetite, what do they get in 
return, but habits that are fraught with danger? 
They gain no equivalent for what they give. 
They force nature, and force nature for the pur- 
pose of bringing themselves into a condition in 
which their whole life will be full of peril. 

4. Drinking habits are not economical. And 
economy, though it is a verj^ homely virtue, and 
is not reckoned among moral virtues, and is 
spoken of as a commercial virtue, has a most 
important relation to a young man's prosperity, 
regarded not only commercial!}', but morall3^ I 
need not speak of it as a matter of commerce. 
Great moderation in the expenditure of money- 
great frugality in the early part of a man's life — is 
a part of that education which every man is ex 
pected to gain who means to acquire a fortune, 
and become a responsible and influential X9.'<y\> in 
the community. 

Now, the administration of one's wealth, 01 oi 



on the Subject of Temperance. 15 

one s affairs, in a close, careful, and successful 
way, is morally beneficial, inasmuch as it means 
self-denial, forethought, arrangement, with a pur- 
pose, followed by a definite action of the will. 
All these things are self-governing elements. 
Self-government may begin with pecuniar}^ mat- 
ters, as well as with other affairs. And thousands 
of men take their first step in moral life through 
the drill which economy requires. And no young 
man, whatever his situation in life may be, has a 
right to despise economy, or has a right to be 
careless or profuse in the expenditure of his 
means. No matter if a man's hands are in mines 
of wealth, he has no right to make a wasteful use 
of that wealth. No man has a right to go from 
youth to manhood without having formed rigid 
habits of economy. If you are poor, then the way 
out of poverty into wealth is through economy ; 
if you are rich, then you should administer your 
riches so that your example shall be a blessing and 
not a curse to the community. You are God's 
steward, and you have no right to recklessly spend 
money that you did not earn — though young men 
seem mostly to think that they have a right to 
scatter all the money that they can lay their 
hands on ! 

The majority of young men, when "tliey enter 
upon life, have but little at the beginning. More 
than half — yes, more than two-thirds, probably — 
of the young men who come to New York to seek 
their fortune, come with a very slender pittance. 
They are obliged to live upon a very small hi- 



1 6 Common Sense for Young Men 

come. And it ought to be a matter of pride with 
every young- man to be able to live on his income, 
however small it may be, and inside of it. It is 
not necessary that you should live here as you 
li ved at home. It might be more agreeable, but it 
is not necessary. There is something higher than 
living at a first-class boarding-house, or at a hotel. 
There is something better than having a luxuri- 
ous table. It IS not necessary that a young man 
should go to a boarding-house at all. If your 
means will not allow it, it is not necessary that 
you should go any higher than to buy your loaf 
and eat it in your own room. 

" But," you will reply, *' what sort of a life is 
that, where a young man works all day, and then 
goes like a dog to his kennel at night, and gnaws 
his loaf, and drinks his cold water, and creeps 
under his straw, and gets up in the morning, and 
gnaws his loaf again, and then drags himself out 
to work once more ?" I think there should be 
provision made for a more respectable method of 
cheap living ; and yet, until that provision is made, 
even such a life, voluntarily assumed, is nobler 
than for a young man to live at a higher rate, and 
steal the difference between his salary and his ex- 
penses, as you are not ashamed to do, often ! It is 
better for a young man to feel so proud that he 
will not go one penny beyond what he lawfully 
owns. And even if a young man is wealthy, it is 
noble for him to live on a moderate allowance. 
But when young men come to the city, and have 
but a small pittance of salary to Uvc on, how often 



on the Subject of Temperance. \j 

do they split up and divide that pittance, and 
waste a large portion of it on tobacco and drink ! 

I shall not now enter upon a crusade against 
the use of tobacco, though I think it is entirely 
needless. The most self-indulgent and the most 
selfish of luxuries is that of tobacco. 1 never 
knew a dozen men that used tobacco that cared 
anything about whether they smelled agreeable 
to other people, or whether they carried them 
selves so that other people were happy, or not. 
They will foul the house, they wii/ foul the boat, 
they will foul the car, if they are not arbitrarily 
restrained. They forget father and mother, and 
wife and children, and all others, and go through 
life smoking, stenchful and disagreeable ; and 
when they are expostulated with, they laugh ! 
The use of tobacco does not make a man a mon- 
ster: it only makes him selfish in respect to the 
comfort of people round about him. Though 
1 consider this to be a most disagreeable and 
selfish habit, I do not look upon it as being at all 
equal to drinking in its evil effects ; but it is a 
very wasteful habit. There are few young men 
that are beginning life who can afford to smoke. 

And, much more, there are few young men that 
can affoid to drink when they are beginning life , 
for, if you drink cheaply, 3^ou drink meanly. If 
you drink wholesomely, you drink dearly. Drink 
ing involves an expense that very few at the be- 
ginning of life can afford to incur. 

Drinking habits take hold indirectly upon the 
whole framework of a man's prosperity They 



1 8 Common Sense for You7ig Men 

lead to very many expenses besides the daily ex. 
pense of the cup. They bring one into society, 
and introduce him to customs which are con- 
stantly a levy and a tax upon him. They place 
him in a position where he is subjected to a great 
many expenditures which, under other circum- 
stances, he might avoid. For they who come to- 
gether for drinking purposes are seldom persons 
who are careful to engineer their waj^ little by 
little, and step by step, up to a strong and safe 
manhood. Out of the circle where drinking is 
carried on for purposes of pleasure there open, 
day by day, hundreds of doors that never open 
without a fee; and a young man who forms the 
habit of drinking takes on an expense that wastes 
his patrimony, and will continually keep him 
down. 

This may not be the case with all, and it will 
be the case with some more than with others ; but 
I think that, with the majority, reasons of economy 
should be sufficient to dissuade them from form- 
mg drinking habits. 

5. Drinking habits open the door to many temp- 
tations which no man has a right to encounter. 
Vices come with drinking habits. Young men 
who are susceptible, wide-aw^ake, and unformed 
in their habits, are inclined to smoke a litt.e, and 
chink a little, and gamble a little, and " see life" 
a little ; and this group of little vices are mq^tj apt 
to invite the company of larger vices. Drinking 
habits throw young men into associations, and 
under cricumstancos, whexe it is far more likely 



on the Subject of Temperance, 19 

that their lower nature will be solicited than that 
their higher moral nature will be solicited. 

V^ see in the poets much about the cup — much 
a^ o»ut its generosity. Many glorious things are 
Aid and sung about ''the wine in the cup;" and 
yet, after all, it is the beast that drinks the cup 
In nine hundred and ninety-nine cases in a thou- 
sand, it feeds the lower nature wholly, and not the 
higher nature at all. 

Now, there are many that are frail in the hour 
of temptation, and that must needs utter that peti- 
tion of the Lord's Prayer, " Lead us not into 
temptation " — as if we should go down il we came 
into its presence, as we should, many of us. The 
majority of us are so weak that we have no right 
to bring ourselves into temptation by forming 
habits of drinking. 

6. There cannot be a doubt as to the fact that 
habits of drinking withdraw from a young man 
the confidence of those who watch and gauge 
young men. Young men who are preparing 
themselves for life, by drinking lose the con- 
fidence of those who desire to employ respectable 
and trustworthy men. The knowledge that a 
young man drinks, destroys his reputation for 
trustworthiness. 

I do not say that that is the case in every coun- 
try. If a man is born under a vine in Italy, and 
is accustomed, from his youth up, to participation 
in the wine-cup, I do not say that he will not ae 
considered trustworthy. We are very much crea- 
tures of the institutions and habits of the country 



20 Common Sense for Young Men 

where we are ; but in this country, where you 
are, and where I am speaking- to you, it is not the 
habit of the population to indulge in the use of 
wine or strong drink, and it is so far opposed to 
an intelligent, correct public sentiment among us, 
that it unquestionably leaves a mark upon a young 
man who indulges in it. 

If you were looking out for a confidential clerk, 
and two young men presented themselves, in al 
respects equal, except that one of them was ac 
customed to indulge gently in drinking, and the 
other was not at all accustomed to it, you would 
not hesitate in your choice. Even if you did not 
scruple at putting wme on your own table, you 
would take the young man that was temperate. 
Many a man who is vicious, wants his wife to be 
pure ; and many a man who drinks, will not allow 
his clerks to drink. And if young men are ad- 
dicted to even a mild indulgence in drinking 
habits, it is prejudicial to their good name and to 
their chances of success. 

This is a habit which is not required by any 
natural impulse, which is not necessary to your 
health, which is full of perils, which exposes you 
to various temptations, and which throws a shadow 
over the threshold of your business life. And 
why should you voluntarily form such a habit, or 
place yourself in such a position that you will 
a.most inevitably fall into it ? What reason is 
there for your entering upon such a course ? 

7. Drinking may either develop a tendency 
which lies dormant in you, or it may create a 



on the Subject of Temperance, 21 

tendency which does not already exist in youi 
system. As a matter of fact, it is certain that 
there are many persons who inherit such an ab- 
normal condition of the nervous system that, on 
suitable provocation, there spring up in them pa- 
roxysms which are almost as ungovernable as are 
convulsions or the paroxysms of neuralgia. There 
is such a thing as a latent tendency of the consti- 
tution that will slumber all one's life, if it be let 
alone, if those things which excite it be rigidly 
withheld, but that, if it be once roused up, will 
assert itself with a force that is well-nigh omnipo- 
tent. And there is many a man who, by taking 
alcoholic stimulants early in life, arouses that 
hereditary tendency in himself; and, once being 
aroused, tiger-like, it destroys its victim. And 
thus thousands are destroyed inemedilessly. 

But if there is no such tendency in you ; if your 
father, and his father, and his father, or if your 
ancestors on both sides, h7*ve sent down to you a 
constitution unimpaired, it may nevertheless be 
the fact that, from othej causes, there is a condi- 
tion of your system whi( h predisposes you to that 
tendency which, if creatf d in you, you will transmit 
to your posterity. And I cannot think of a cruelty 
greater than that whicU shall lead a parent, from 
reasons of mere self-indulgence, to roll dow^n on his 
posterity, to many generations, a tendency which 
shall be one long and terrible curse to them. 
And yet there are multitudes that are doing it. 

Whoever consumes his own nervous system by 
excessive indulgence in any manner, prepares the 



22 Common Sense for Young Men 

vvay for those who come after him to be blighted 
in their whole nervous constitution. And if, in 
the use of intoxicating drinks, you drive up jour 
jaded faculties; if you, for the sake of fulfilling 
tasks that are beyond your power, resort to un- 
natural stimulation, you prepare yourself to hand 
down to your posterity the blight of intemper- 
ance, if ever they shall touch the intoxicating 
bowl. 

8. No man has a right, under all the conditions 
that I have mentioned, to put himself in peril by 
either or all of these mischiefs. No man has a 
right to buy a ticket in this lottery of death. If a 
lottery should be started, if the Avheel should be 
opened, and if you knew that there was one in 
each hundred of the tickets that would bring death 
and destruction to the person who should draw it, 
you would not have anything to do with that 
lottery. You never w^ould run the risk of losing 
your life, where the chances of death were one to 
a hundred, even if one of the tickets was marked 
ten thousand dollars, another two thousand, and 
another one thousand. Who would patronize 
such a lottery ? Who would not say that a man 
who did it courted death ? But here is a lottery 
in w^hich the death-bearing tickets are more than 
one in ever}- hundred. And what earthly reason 
is there that should induce a man to put in a ven- 
ture where the risk is so great? What great good 
i^ there that he can hope to gain ? There is none. 
What great happiness is there that he can 
reasonably expect to obtain ? There is none. 



on the Subject of Temperance, 23 

What customs impose on him the necessity of thus 
placing himself in jeopardy ? None that are not 
better broken than observed. What inward need 
impels him to it ? None. 

Thus far, I have argued this question on the 
lower grounds of expediency. [ present, now, 
higher motives for the young to live a temperate 
life. 

I. Every man is bound to present himself to his 
age and country as noble a specimen of manhood 
as is possible to him. Every man is bound so to 
develop every part of his nature — his physical 
vigor, his intellectual strength, his moral powers — 
that when he presents himself to his country he 
shall be worth that country's accepting. 

It was the custom among the Greeks, when 
a man had done well, when he had made great 
achievements, to have a statue of him in some 
temple of the gods ; and their temples became 
museums, filled with statues of those benefactors 
of the state, who were able to buy statues of them- 
selves, which had been voted a place there. These 
statues were ranged in long successions about the 
temples. And every man is bound to case him- 
self, not in marble, but in flesh and blood, in men- 
tal powers, and in the higher attributes of the soul, 
and present himself, a living man, to the state, that 
he may be. not a mere lifeless siniulacruin, but a 
man of life and vigor, and an instrument of good, 
in the age to which he belongs. 

I love to see young men with a noble carnage, 
and with blocming health. I cannot bear to see 



M Common Sense Jo7 Young Men 

young men, that have every reason for building 
up a noble manhood, walking with a discolored 
face and an unwholesome skin, which are signs of 
intemperance. Perhaps there is nothing more dis- 
reputable than for a young man to present him- 
self a miserable wreck of what he might have 
been, and a burden, to the state and to the age in 
which he lives ; and perhaps there is nothing more 
creditable to a young man than to present himself 
to the state and to the age in which he lives a 
fnonument of health and vigor and true manli- 
ness. Temperance brings you to this higher and 
nobler condition of manhood, and intemperance 
takes you from it. 

2. No man has a right to sport with all the in- 
terests that are centred in a moral being, and to 
put himself in peril for such reasons as mostly in- 
duce young men to drink. As I have said, there 
is no natural appetite in you for intoxicating 
beverages. There is nothing in your normal con- 
dition which leads you to want them. There is a 
curiosity that many young persons feel in regard to 
them. I remember that, from what I had read in the 
Bible and other books about wine, ] had the im- 
pression that if I tasted it I should be lifted up to 
the seventh heaven, and I had a great curiosity to 
know how wine tasted. And finally I did taste it. 
But I was not lifted up by it as I expected 1 
should be. And since this curiosity exists, I can- 
not say that if my child had heard of champagne, 
and wanted to taste it, I never would let him taste 
it. I think it very likely that if I did not he would 



on the Subject of Temperance. 25 

gratify that curiosity, that abnormal desire, by 
stealth ; and it seems to me that if he is going 
to know what it is, the knowledge had better be 
conveyed to him by parental revelation and teach- 
mg, mostly. And a child that has had one taste of 
it, usually wants no more. And when young nren 
have once tasted wine, and satisfied their curiosity 
about it, why should they continue taking it? 
Though they do not like it, they are ashamed 
among their companions not to hold up their 
heads, and toss off a drink, just like any other 
man. They are ashamed to be deficient in so 
manly an accomplishment! They are ashamed to 
stand up and say, '' I do not relish it ; I do not 
need it, and I will not have it." They connot 
bear the ridicule which such a declaration would 
subject them to. They are ashamed to have it 
thought that they cannot afford to have what rich 
and fashionable people have ; and yet they cainot, 
and it is a lie for them to pretend that they can. 
You drink because great men around you drink. 
The head of that firm up there drinks, ind st) you 
poverty-stricken clerk down there dink. And 
you are going to drink what fashion ible people 
do — you, that have not a rag of fashion, and will 
not have for years to come. And y 3u will do it 
knowing that it is beyond your me ais, that it is 
contrary to good health, and inconsistenl with 
manliness. For miserable, unmanly reasons of 
pride and vanity, you drink. You do not dare, 
going out at one o'clock at night, with half a 
dozen young fellows that have ''the fljsh of 



26 Common Sense for Young Men 

health " on their faces, when they ask you to step 
in and take some " bitters " with them, to refuse. 
You do not dare to meet their taunts and gibes. 
You do not dare, when 3^ou hesitate and draw 
back, and they say, *' What ! afraid ? You are pro- 
bably one of the virtuous young men that came from 
the country," to say, "Yes, I am ; and I intend to re- 
main so a good while." How many men are there 
that, in a matter vital to their virtue, vital to their 
good habits, and vital to their manliness, flinch, 
and go down before their companions, and drink 
w^hat they do not like, and what they know is 
damaging to them, putting ever}' thing in peril, be- 
cause they have not the manliness to say " Xo " ! 

You go to a wedding, and the fair hands of the 
entertaining company present the cup to you ; and 
you say, " Of course, I must drink here." Oh ! 
that it were only just here ; but there are so many 
just heres ! Soon after comes the convivial enter- 
tainment ; and the same hands again present you 
with the cup ; and you drink again. Temptations 
follow at frequent intervals, and on each succeed- 
mg occasion you yield more easily than at the 
previous one. It does not make you a drunkard, 
but it w^eakens your power of standing on your 
conscience and manly independence, and saying, 
" Such things I disallow, and will not do." It is 
the beginning of that inclined plane down which 
you are preparing to slide. It is one of those ways 
which are pjeasant, and which seem to be safe, but 
the ends of which are death. To stand in the 
blooming presence of beauty, and to be smiled 



on the Stibject of Temperance, 27 

apon, especially if the persons that smile upon 
you are a little higher in society than you are, 
they standing- on five thousand, while you stand 
on five hundred, is very flattering to your vanity. 
And if, having invited you, they offer you wine, 
and sa}^ " You certainly will take it from me," you 
cannot refuse. You think, '' If I am admitted into 
that family, my prospects will be bright ; my for- 
tune will be made." 

What a casuist the devil is when he wants to get 
people in his power ! How delicate he is ! How 
he makes the road to sin smooth and delightful ! 

So, under such beguiling influences, young men 
take the cup, and drink, and drink again, and drink 
many times. And many, under such circumstan- 
ces, are ashamed of themselves ; they rebuke 
themselves ; they go home with an unquiet con- 
science ; they feel humbled; and yet, they repeat 
the same round of dissipation again and again. 
And I put it to any man who has any self-respect, 
whether he ought to be cajoled or dragooned into 
using what he does not like, v/hat does not 
like him, what exposes him to all possible perils, 
what is unfitted to his circumstances, and what is 
subversive of all his thoughts of manhood ? 

I am ashamed of a young man who cannot 
resist the te^nptation to drink ; or, rather, I am 
sorry for him, I think very likely that I should 
feel embarrassed, and blush, and submit, as you 
do. But it is no less a peril ; and I warn every 
voung man not to allow the customs of society 
to seduce him from a sober and matured pur- 



28 Common Sense for Young Men 

pose, to stand utterly clean and clear of this mis- 
chief. 

3. This is the great social battle of the age which 
we are fighting between the flesh and the spirit — 
between the animal and the man. We are living 
in a time when nothing can save us but moral 
principle in the individual. Our government is 
an equal government, as such. We have cast in 
our destiny on this great principle of popular 
government, and we must go up with it, or go 
down with it. It is for us to maintain our insti- 
tutions, if they are maintained at all ; and unless 
we can teach individuals and the masses seh- 
respect and self-control, we are utterly ruined. It 
is a mere matter of time. There is no salvation for 
institutions like ours except in the principle of 
self-control. And there is no single evil, social or 
political, that strikes more at the foundation of 
such institutions than the drinking habits of society. 
If you corrupt the working-class by drink ; if you 
corrupt the great middle-class by drink ; if you 
corrupt the literary and wealthy classes by drink, 
you have destroyed the commonwealth beyond 
your power to save it. And we are making battle 
for the preservation of this moral principle. It 
is the great patriotic movement of the day. 
Therefore, we must have clear heads ; we must 
have right consciences ; we must have all the man- 
hood that is in men, or that can educate them to 
it. The good that is in society will not be a match 
for the evil that is continually pulling it down. 

Now, young men, which side are you to take in 



on the Subject of Temperance, 29 

tlbis gieat struggle? Will you go for license^ 
Wil) y -u go for passion ? Will you go for corrup- 
tion? Or will you range yourselves on the side of 
those who are attempting to lift men up toward 
spirituality ; toward true reason ; toward noble 
self control ? You can afford to go but one way. 
Every young man who has one impulse of hero 
ism, one generous tendency in him, ought in tb*^ 
beginning to take his ground beyond all contro 
versy, and say, " I work for those who work fo*^ 
the good and beautiful and true." 

4. You have no right to allow your example to 
seduce the weak. I have spoken of the effects of 
drinking habits on yourselves. Now comes an 
auxiliary consideration. Even if you are not your- 
selves personally injured by drinking, your exam- 
ple injures others. 

I am aware that men oftentimes revolt from the 
application of this thought in regard to example 
saying, " Man is independent. I am not bound t< 
conform to the vulgar opinions of ignorant mem, 
I am not bound to take the pattern of my develop, 
ment from the undeveloped and uneducated below 
me. They must come to me. I shall not go to 
them." 

A man has a right to shock public opinion 
whenever he is endeavoring to bring in « 
higher morality ; whenever there is a greater 
degree of refinement after which he is seeking , 
whenever custom is to be set aside, and a ne^ 
and better state of things instituted. He is i 
moral coward who fears to do it under such oIt- 



30 Common Sense for Young Men 

cumstances. But you have no right to be content 
with simple conformity to custom, and to be in- 
different to the effect of your example on those be- 
neath you. There are many persons who are apt 
to consider themselves exempt from this duty of 
taking care that their example shall not be a 
stumbling-block, but a safe guide, to others. 
Those who are influential by reason of wealth, or 
position, or culture, are wont to throw off the 
responsibility of their example; but none more 
than they should watch their example with a con- 
scientious regard for any who may be affected by 
it. In proportion as God has made you strong, 
either in your mental attainments or in your out- 
ward circumstances, he lays on you the responsi- 
bility of the example which you set for those who 
are not so fortunate as you are. 

A man cannot help being influenced by the ex- 
ample of those who occupy elevated positions in 
society. A man will inevitably be affected by the 
example of those who are high in station. If a 
man is rich, and lives in splendor, his example 
will surely influence those by whom he is sur- 
rounded. And it is the duty of all that are 
endowed with the power of benefiting or injuring 
others by their example, to see that that example 
is beneficial, and not injurious. Those who are at 
the top of society are largely responsible for the 
ideas of those who are at the bottom. And if God 
has advanced you among men, it is not to give 
you more license, but to make you more careful 
of your example before others. No man has a 



on the Subject of Temperance* 31 

right to let his example work mischief upon those 
in the midst of whom he moves. And the unfeel- 
ing indifference of men (and more, perhaps, in this 
matter of drinking- than in any other) as to the 
welfare of their neighbors, shows that their hearts 
have become seared by prosperity, and degraded 
by the things which should, in the providence of 
God, have made them more tender and con- 
siderate. 

5. No man has a right to be neutral in the great 
work of temperance, in this age, and in this coun- 
try. Every man, from considerations of personal 
safety, from moral considerations, from consider- 
ations of his relations to his fellow-men in social 
life, and from considerations of patriotism or of 
state, ought to take sides in this matter, and let 
his position be known of all men. It is too 
notorious to require any proof, that, to a very 
great extent, especially in the cities, our legis- 
lation begins in the grog-shop. Tiie seed of judges 
is planted there. Our administrations spring out 
of the ooze and mud of drinking holes. Our na 
tional councils are begun there. The machinery 
of government is arranged there. There is no 
part of the community so active as that which lives 
in the indulgence of the animal appetites ; and 
there is no part of the community which 
should be watched over with such sleepless vigil- 
ance by those who, by sound morality and superior 
judgment, are fitted to wisely administer the 
affairs of the nation. And the time has come 
when al. good men, who have so long staid a^ 



32 Common Sense for Young Men 

home, and left the management of political aftkirs 
in the hands of dissipated and unscrupulous men, 
should come together, and take the r'ie of purity 
and temperance. We must produce a radical 
change in the public sentiment of the country on 
this vital question, or we shall be destroyed by 
the overwhelming deluge of the drinking habits 
of society. 

Now, I have purposely avoided exaggerations 
in the discussion of this subject to-night. I have 
avoided the presentation of extravagant views. I 
have attempted to address myself to your reason. 
And, in closing, I desire to ask you two questions : 

First: Have I not presented considerations 
sufficient to make it every man's duty to think 
about this subject? If you have indulged your- 
self hitherto thoughtlessly and carelessly in drink- 
ing nabits, is it not your du»"7 to consider seriously 
whether it is not best for you to become a total 
abstainer from everything that is intoxicating ? If 
your example in this matter has been such as to 
lead others into temptation, ought you not to con- 
sider the propriety of reviewing your course, and 
so rectifying it that it shall be a blessing, and not 
a curse, to your fellow-men? 

The second question which I desire to ask, is, 
whether it is not your duty to decide this ques- 
tion on strictly moral grounds ? I do not say to 
men, '* You shall never drink wine or ardent ^ 
spirits." I say to them, " Ought you not to make 
a decision on this subject ? And ought you not 
to make that decision on moral grounds ? Is not 



on the Subject of Temperance, 33 

this a matter that you ought to consider, not only 
in the light of your own personal welfare, but also 
ni the light of your relations to individuals with 
whom you come in contact, to the community in 
which you live, and to the nation to which you 
belong ?'' 

1 can well understand how^ a man may, on his 
death-bed, look back upon his career in life, and 
say, " I am sorry that I ever touched the cup ; " 
but I cannot understand how any man can, on his 
death-bed, look back and say, " I am sorry that I 
have always been abstemious of the cup." There 
is one way that you know is safe, and honorable, 
and proper as regards others ; but the other way, 
even if it is possible for it to be safe, is one in 
which there are a hundred chances to one that, 
directly or indirectly, it will be mischievous — if 
not to you, to others. 

Can you form a decision on such a subject as 
this, and not take into consideration these great 
verities? And are you that are safe justified in 
taking the first steps in a course which is so full of 
peril? How much wiser and better it will be for 
'"ou, whose lips are still clean, to go through life 
with them undefiled ! Do this, and 3^ou will have 
reason all through your life to thank God (.bat in 
your earl}^ days you were induced to take a staii J of 
strict, invariable temperance. Temperance will do 
you no harm. In a thousand ways, it will do you 
good. Even occasional drinking will do you no 
good ; and entire abstinence from drinking will 
do you no harm. 



^ Common Sense for Young Men, 

TaKe the right side ; the manly side ; the patri- 
otic side. God help you and keep you. And 
by-and-byj may there come from the lips of many 
a man who hears me to-night this testimony : 
" I thank God that I heard that sermon by 
Mr. Beecher on that Sunday night. It saved me. 
It made me live a better life all the wav through/ 



THE MORAL DUTY 



Total Abstinence. 



*'Wmo is a mocker, strong drink is raging: aod whosoever is decelvH 
hereby is not wise." — Proverbs xx. i. 

I PROPOSE to discuss the very important 
question, What is the duty of every Chris- 
tian in reference to the use of intoxicating drinks? 
No question is, at the present moment, agitating 
more minds than this one. None has a better 
right to enter the pulpit on the Sabbath ; to no 
other moral question can a minister of Jesus 
Christ be more imperatively required to return 
a candid, careful, and most unmistakable answer-. 
In every domain of practical Christian morals, the 
pulpit ought to make the path of duty so clear 
that " the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not 
err therein." A minister should carry no dark- 
Ian terns. 

During the past week, I have found my mind 
disturbed afresh, and deeply, too, by the state of 
things around us. To the outward eye, the busi- 
ness and the social life of this city have gone on as 
aforctimes. But the eye of God, looking into the 
interior moral life of this community, has seea 



$6 God's Law on the Body and 

strange and sorrowful thing's. He has seen strug- 
gles with terrible temptation that you have little 
dreamed of. He has seen several thousands of 
people strongly tempted to do that which inclina- 
tion or custom* prompted them to do, and yet the 
very doing of it might be fatal to the body and 
damning to the soul. He has seen some young 
man stretching forth his hand, with anxious mis- 
giving, for his first glass of strong drink ; and 
some aged hands reached out to clutch the glass, 
v/hich should be almost their last. He has beheld 
thousands of our neighbors entering the door of 
the drinking-saloon without even heeding that 
awful inscription written over that door by the 
hand of Truth — '* Whosoever is deceived here, is 
not wise. Here rich men are made poor; thrifty 
men are made idle ; healthy men are poisoned 
with deadly disease ; parents are made childless; 
wives are made widows ; and immortal souls, for 
whom Jesus bled, are dooming themselves to 
the outer darkness of eternal despair I" The Om- 
niscient eye has seen some parents setting the 
sparkling cup (which ''biteth like a serpent") 
right before their own children ; and even church- 
members have offered that ensnaring cup at their 
hospitable boards to guests, who have been con- 
firmed in dangerous habits by the example of pro- 
fessed Christians ! The e3^e of God has seen the 
woes, and the ear of God has heard the wails, of 
the drunkard's home. Beneath all this smooth 
surface of society, God has witnessed the most 
terrible passions of lust, sensuality, anger, cruelty. 



His Law in the Book, 37 

and often of red-handed murder — -all fomented 
and kept in hot fury by the monster curse of the 
intoxicating bowl. And now, up from this seething 
caldron of misery and sin, marches the question 
to-day to every Christian conscience, *' What is 
my duty in regard to using or offering these de- 
ceitful and destructive drinks ?" Surely our All- 
wise and Heavenly Father has not left us in the 
dark on so momentous a question of Christian 
duty. If our Father has made known to us his 
will in regard to alcoholic intoxicants, where 
shall we discover it ? 

I reply that we shall discover it in two clearly 
legible laws : the one is the law written on our 
bodily constitutions ; the other is the law written 
in this blessed book, the Bible. God is the au- 
thor of both the body and the book. What 
he has written on the one never contradicts what 
he has written in the other. Trutlis never con- 
flict. An established truth of science never con- 
tradicts an established truth of revelation. And 
when any man or any minister attempts to prove 
that the Word of God justifies and encourages the 
use of intoxicating beverages, he puts a fatal wea- 
pon into the hands of the rnfidel. For the shrewd 
sceptic quickly retorts, " I know that alcoholic 
stimulants are deadly poisons to the human body 
and mind ; if, therefore, your Bible justifies and 
encourages their habitual use, then your Bible 
must be false. I prefer to stick to what I know, 
rather than believe what you make your Bible to 
say." So reasons the cunning sceptic. But you 



38 God's Law on the Body and 

may be sure, good friends ! that I am not going 
to put such a logical bludgeon into the hands of 
the infidel ; neither shall I put into the mouth of 
the Christian any excuse for violating God's law, 
whether written on the human body or in the 
heaven-sent book. Our bodies, so *' wonderfully 
made," were created to be temples of the Holy 
Spirit, and not to be dens of debauchery. We are 
commanded to " glorify God in the body," and 
every Christian is bound to pray that his '' spirit 
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

I. Now let us enquire what law in regard to 
the use of alcoholic intoxicants, God has written 
on our bodies ? 

To this question, both science and universal 
human experience give answer in a voice as dis- 
tinct as the thunder of Niagara. Science has 
made long and patient investigation of the sta- 
tutes which the Creator has written on the human 
organism, and has established the fact that alco- 
holic intoxicants are a poison. Science holds her 
inquest over the bloated, disfigured body of the 
man who is drunk, and brings in her verdict, 
*' This man is poisoned !" Alcohol poisons the 
blood in every vein. It assaults the very throne 
of our manhood and poisons the brain. It pro- 
duces such a subtle derangement of the very tex-' 
ture of the brain, that the drinker is tormented by- 
rccurrences of thirst for strong drink long after he- 
has broken off the indulgence. There is not a re-' 
formed inebriate who does not carry in his brain 



His Law in the Booh 39 

a powder-magazine ready to ignite at the touch 
of one drop of strong drink. Alcohol is one of 
the most malignant of all poisons, for by its horrid 
sorcery it strikes through, and poisons the immor- 
tal soul ! Yet, like other narcotic poisons, alcohol 
has the magical power to deceive its victim by 
making him absolutely believe that it is doing him 
no harm ! The " father of lies " never made such 
a liar as alcohol. Even if we never had any 
Bible, science would inscribe on the forehead of 
every habitual drinker of intoxicants, ** Wine is 
a mocker, strong drink is raging: whosoever is 
deceived thereby is not wise." 

2. Science has a second testimony to furnish. 
She declares incontestably that alcohol is not a 
" good creature " of the God of love ; for it is no- 
where to be found in the whole domain of nature. 
While the Almighty has created innumerable 
fountains of sparkling water, he never created one 
gill of alcohol ! It is the simple product of the 
fermenting vat and the distillery. It is born of 
vegetable decay. God made the golden corn to 
nourish and sustain his mighty family ; but distil- 
lation throws the golden grain into a vat of rot- 
tenness, and presses out of the rotting mass the 
fiery juice of alcohol. God hung the purple clus- « 
ters on the vine to gladden the human eye and 
the palate ; but fermentation turns the pure blood 
of the grape into a maddening intoxicant. Even 
if we never had an inspired Bible, yet science 
would have written on the rosy-hued decanter, 
" Look not on the wine when it is beautifully 



40 God''s Law on the Body and 

red, when it sparkleth in the cup, when it g^oeth 
,down smoothly ; for at the last it will bite like the 
serpent, and sting like the adder.-' 

3. But science and human experience have a 
third testimony to offer, and it is the most convinc- 
ing of all. They reveal to us that God has writ- 
ten on every human body a law of abstinence from 
intoxicating beverages, by decreeing that alcohol 
shall lessen the muscular power, and diminish the 
animal heat, and derange the digestive organs of 
the human body. All these laws are as immov- 
ably true as the law of gravitation. Alcohol is 
not food. It positively interferes with alimenta- 
tion. Alcohol, instead of helping digestion, tends 
to destroy the digestive organs. Yet thousands 
of deluded people are swallowing doses of gin and 
whiskey and wines every day, under the ignorant 
infatuation that these draughts will aid them to 
digest their dinners. Men will even cling to this 
delusive lie long after their stomachs have been 
burnt out by their fiery potations. 

If alcoholic drinks do not feed or warm or aid 
the digestive functions of our bodies, then *' sure- 
ly," says the drinker, '' they will strengthen me." 
No, sir ! your '' mocker " is lying to you again. 
Intoxicating drinks actually lessen your musculai 
power. They waste your vital forces. And they 
waste them to such a damaging extent, that no 
sane life insurance compan}^ will take a risk on 
your lives if you are habitually addicted to the use 
of alcoholic drinks. When the most famous ol 
modern pugilists was asked if he did not i^e plenty 



His Law in the Book. 41 

of ale and porter while in training for his brutal 
prize-fights, he replied, *' When I have business on 
hand, there is nothing like cold water and the 
dumb-bells." The shameless bully cared nothing 
for God's law written in the Bible ; but he knew 
too much about God's law written on his body to 
weaken his giant strength by using alcoholic poi- 
sons. I was once told by the most famous Ameri- 
can pedestrian, that nothing was so fatal to his 
success when engaged in a great feat of walking, as 
even the moderate use of wine or of whiskey. 

Science and human experience do not halt at 
these two individual examples. They point us 
to the whole mighty and innumerable array of 
noble feats of the hand, and feats of the muscle, 
and feats of the brain, and feats of the giant intel- 
lect, which have been wrought by men who were 
clean from the taint or touch of alcohol, and they 
defy you to match those feats by any performan- 
ces of bodies or of brains which were poisoned by 
strong drink. Science and experience point to 
the fact that every healthy human frame instinc- 
tively recognizes alcohol as its enemy, and tries to 
expel it. Science and experience testify that al- 
cohol does not feed a human body, but impover- 
ishes it ; instead of warming the body, it first 
scorches, and then leaves it to freeze ; instead of 
building it up, it tears it down ; instead of pro- 
longing life, it breeds a legion of diseases ; and, 
with the smile of pleasure on its face, it wields the 
red dagger of the assassin ! Science and experi- 
ence invoke before us to-day the millions of human 



42 God's Law on the Body and 

forms that are scarred, and defaced, and disfigured, 
and diseased by strong drink ; and summoning from 
their putrid graves the myriads upon myriads who 
for forty centuries have been murdered by strong 
drink, they propose to them the question, '' What 
is God's law written upon your bodies?" And 
from the whole mighty multitude of living bodies 
and of the dead, comes back a voice loud as the 
seven thunders of the Apocalypse — Total Ab- 
stinence! TOTAL ABSTINENCE!! 

II. We have been reading the law of the Crea- 
tor written on the human body ; now let us read 
and interpret the law written in this inspired book. 
What saith the Lord ? In approaching the Word 
of God to receive its testimony, we must come to 
it in the spirit of devout candor, and with no dis- 
position to seize upon certain isolated texts, and 
twist them into hooks to hang our pet theories on. 
We must study each passage in the light of the 
whole book. We must look fairly at the general 
aim and scope and spirit of the entire volume. 
What is the general aim and spirit of God's glo- 
rious Word ? No one will dare to deny that the 
aim of this book is to elevate man, and not to de- 
grade him ; to purify him, and not to poison him ; 
to keep his soul and body undefiled, and not to 
make either body or soul a den of uncleanness. 
The whole trend of the Bible is towards sobrie- 
ty and self-control. It enjoins watchfulness and 
" keeping the body under," and crucifixion of all 
sensual lusts. It commands us to be holy even as 
God himself is holy. No virtue was more persis 



His Law in the Book, 43 

tently preached by our Divine Redeemer and his 
apostles, than the beautiful virtue of self-denial. 
No sin is more condemned than the sin of self-in- 
dulgence. Our Father sent this blessed book to 
lead his frail, sinful children up toward heaven, 
and not to mislead them towards drunkenness and 
damnation. I therefore assert, without fear of suc- 
cessful contradiction, that from the first syllable 
in Genesis to the last love-note of Revelation, the 
whole spirit of God's Word is in favor of entire 
abstinence from every practice which tends to de- 
grade and destroy the human body or soul ! The 
divine law in the book confirms the divine law 
on the body. All attempts to dragoon the Scrip- 
tures into a support of the modern drinking cus- 
toms — like all similar attempts to dragoon them 
into a support of modern slavery — only end in 
making scoffers and sceptics. 

Our opponents will say that this is dealing too 
much in generalities. They demand an examina- 
tion of particular texts. Their demand shall be 
gratified. We have no fear of the result. '' Let 
truth and error grapple ; who ever knew truth to 
be worsted in a fair encounter?" 

We affirm that the ho-ly Word of God enjoins 
the duty of abstinence from alcoholic intoxicants. 
Before this assembly, as before a court, we shall 
summon witnesses from the inspired record to 
prove this declaration. First of all, we summon 
the ancient patriarch Noah, who " planted a vine- 
yard, and drank of the wine, and was drunken !" 
As we gaze upon the poor old man lying in his 



44 God'^s Law on the Body and 

debauch, we discover plainly that the grace of 
God never will protect even a good man from the 
^ consequences of sin, while he is breaking God's 
law written on the bod}^ Had Noah been a '' tee- 
totaler," he never would have been drunk. The 
very ''preacher of righteousness" who could 
withstand a world of scoffing idolaters could not 
withstand the wine-cup. What member of Christ's 
church will dare to tamper with a tempter which 
laid even Noah on his back ? 

I next summon Moses, the man of God, who 
has recorded Jehovah's solemn prohibition of the 
priesthood from touching wine when engaged in 
their sacred duties: "Do not drink wine nor 
strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee, when 
ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest 
ye die." Even that one passage, in the fourteenth 
chapter of Deuteronomy, which is often claimed 
as a warrant for tippling, I am not willing to 
surrender. In that passage, Moses records this 
permission of God to his people on festal occasions, 
'' Thou shalt bestow that money for oxen, for 
sheep, for wine or strong drink, or for whatsoever 
thy soul desireth, and thou shalt eat there before the 
Lord thy God." This word " strong drink " has a 
very ominous sound ; but it is the incorrect transla- 
tion of the Hebrew word sliakm^ which signifies a 
sweet drink expressed from fruits, and often drank 
in an unfermented state. It is the root of our Eng- 
lish word sugar. This passage gives no warrant tor 
the use of alcoholic poisons, even on the most in- 
nocent occasions of festivity. 



His Law in the Book, 45 

Here let me remind you, once for all, tnat the 
W 3rd of God speaks sometimes of certain drinks 
as a '' blessing," as innocent in themselves, and 
as a symbol of spiritual blessings. In othei 
passages, God's book condemns certain drinks 
as dangerous and deadly. Most unfortunately 
and ignorantly, our English translators of the 
Bible often translated both the innocent and 
the hurtful beverages under the common 
name of " wine " and of " strong drink." That 
acute and profound scholar, Professor Moses Stu- 
art, of Andover, has wisely said, " My final 
conclusion is, that wherever the Scriptures speak 
of wine as a comfort, a blessing, or a libation to 
God, they can mean only such drinks as contained 
no alcohol ; but in those passages in which they 
denounce wine and prohibit it and connect it with 
drunkenness, they can mean only the alcoholic in- 
toxicant.'' Facts show that the ancients not only 
preserved wine unfermented, but regarded it as 
of a higher flavor than the fermented wine. This 
unfermented wine, or blood of the grape^ could 
be used without any inebriation whatever. Why, 
then, shall we not take the sound and safe position 
that only the harmless and innocent beverages are 
commended in the Bible, and that it is the alcoho- 
lic intoxicant which is there denounced and pro- 
hibited ? 

My next witness is Samson, the stalwart deliv- 
erer of Israel ; the " muscular Christian," for whom, 
when he was '' sore athirst," God wroucrht a mira- 
cle to give him drink. And that drink was not 



4^ God's Law on the Body and 

wine or whiskey, but pure cold water. As this 
man of giant strength comes on the witness-stand 
before us, he testifies that he never touched wine 
or strong drink, nor even ate of anything that 
Cometh of the vine ! Nor did his mother do so 
before him. He thus escaped the danger of an 
hereditary appetite for strong drink, which is the 
fatal secret of the drunkenness of thousands. Fath- 
ers ! mothers ! if you would have sober and health- 
ful children, keep the virus of this accursed appe- 
tite out of your blood ! 

Now, what saith the wise man? Let us call up 
Solomon, to whom God gave an understanding 
heart, so that there was none like unto him. I 
will read for you his testimony in close and literal 
translation from the original Hebrew. Hear his 
mspired words ! '' Who hath woe ? Who hath 
sorrow? Who hath strifes? Who hath wounds 
without cause ? Who hath blurred eyes ? Those 
who tarry long over the wine ; those who enter in 
to try mixed drinks. Look not on the wine when 
it shows itself ruddy, when it sparkleth in the cup, 
when it goeth down smoothly. For at the last it 
will bite like a serpent, and sting like a viper." Is 
there any one in this house who can possibly twist 
this passage into an apology for '' moderate drink, 
ing " ? Then you might as well say that Solomon 
believed in a moderate playing with snakes, or in 
being moderately stung by a nest of adders. 

I might summon before you the prophet Hosea, 
with his solemn declaration, " Whoredom and wine 
and new wine, take away the heart." And sublime 



His Law in the Book, 47 

Habakkuk, too, with that terrific word of warning 
to every one of us, '' Woe unto him that giveth 
his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him ! " 
I wish that this thrilling passage of God's Word 
could be posted, not only over every dramshop 
door, but also over every table on which false hos- 
pitality ever places a decanter. 

Many other Bible witnesses, too, I might sum- 
mon. But let us make room for Paul, the heroic, 
self-denying apostle, who strove to '* keep his body 
under," and who exhorts us all to present to God 
even our bodies as a " living offering." He it is 
who was inspired to utter that fearful announce- 
ment, " Nor drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of 
God." We may reasonably expect, therefore, that 
he will give his fellow-men no excuse for tamper- 
ing with that which leads to drunkenness. We 
are not disappointed. Paul is most emphatic in 
his counsels to entire abstinence. In his first let- 
ter to the Thessalonians, he says : " Let us watch 
and driitk not.'' This is the honest reading of the 
Greek word, which our translators have rendered 
"sober." In describing the qualifications for a 
Christian minister, Paul says : *' A bishop [/. e.^ an 
overseer of souls] must be abstemious, sober-mind- 
ed, not sitting by the zvz7ie ! " I translate this vi- 
tally important verse thus by the authority of the 
late Dr. Edward Robinson and other profound 
scholars. I could not ask for a stronger command 
to total abstinence on the part of every Christian 
minister. 

So rigid was Paul in his total abstinence princi- 



48 God 'i Law on the Body and 

pies that, when he writes to his abstaining brother 
Timothy, he docs not recommend him to use wine 
as a beverage. He carefully says, " Do not drink 
any longer water only, but use a little wine for thy 
stomach's sake." He prescribes *' wine " only as 
a medicine, and but " little " at that. (Will some 
one here please to prove to me that even that little 
wine was an intoxicating drink ?) But lest Paul's 
position could be possibly misunderstood, he has 
left to us that memorable utterance so redolent of 
Gospel philanthropy : '* It is good not to eat 
flesh \i. e., meat offered to idols], nor drink 
wine, nor anything Avhereby thy brother stum- 
bleth." It is claimed that this passage enjoins 
total abstinence on the ground of '' expediency." 
Well, you may use this word if you choose, but I 
maintain that it is an expediency that has the tre- 
mendous ^r^/ of a moral duty. For if my obligation 
to do anything which is required to save a fellow- 
creature from ruin be not a duty, I should like to 
know where, under the broad heavens, there is a 
duty ? My Bible teaches me that a pernicious 
example is a sin against the law of love for my 
neighbor. 

We have now briefly examined the testimonies 
of the chief Bible witnesses on the great question 
before us. Are there any witnesses to be sum- 
moned on the other side? We wait for any to 
appear. But stop ! Here comes an expounder 
of God's Word who brings forward the example 
of his ineffable Lord and Saviour, and asserts that 
Jesus Christ actually manufactured, by miracle, a 



His Law in the Book. 49 

lar^e quantity of alcoholic intoxicants to be drunk 

i»X a wedding-feast ! 

If we had not heard this portentous assertion 
made ten thousand times already, we should be 
horrified. But let us look it squarely in the face. 
Our opponents will admit that our divine Lord 
"' knew what was in man." He certainly knew 
also the nature of an alcoholic drink, its tempta- 
tions, its woes, and its viper-sting. He certainly 
could have created a perfectly innocent unintoxi- 
cating wine, similar to the pure blood of the grape. 
In view of this perfect knowledge and sovereign 
power of our loving Lord, we defy any man to 
prove that he actually created and gave to his own 
children a draught of alcoholic poison. If the Son 
of God then and there created alcohol, then was it 
the first time and the only time in human history 
when divine power ever made what nowhere else 
exists in nature ! 

" Thou hast kept the good wine until now," said 
the governor of the feast, when he tasted of the 
beverage which Jesus had made. Was that wine 
" good '' which ministered to drunkenness ? Was 
that wine ''good" which contained beneath its 
ruby sparkle the fang of the viper and the sting of 
the adder ? What were considered the best wines 
in Palestine ? 

A pertinent answer to this last question is given 
by the late Moderator of our Presbyterian Gene- 
ral Assembly, who declares, in his learned com- 
ment on this passage, '' All who know of the 
wines then used well understand the unfermented 



5© God'^ s Law on the Body and 

juice of the grape. The present wines of Jerusalem 
and Lebanon, as we tasted them, were without in- 
toxicating- qualities such as we get here in liquors 
called wines. Those were esteemed the best which 
.were least strong." He is firm in his judgment 
that the wine at Cana was not alcoholic. 

This satisfactory opinion of the learned Profes- 
sor Jacobus is also maintained by such eminent 
scholars as Professor Moses Stuart, the lamented 
Albert Barnes, Professor Owen, President Nott. 
Dr. Lees, and scores of careful students of the in- 
spired Word. Our divine Lord never made an 
alcoholic intoxicant ! To this firm conviction I 
have always stood, and shall stand until I meet 
him on his throne in the day of his glorious ap- 
pearing. It is even a profanation to couple his 
holy name with the fiery potations of our times. 

I trust you have not been wearied by this brief 
review of the teachings of God's inspired book. 
Those teachings may be summed up in four dis- 
tinct affirmations. Observe each one of them 
carefully : 

1. The Bible, in various passages, points out 
the evils and the perils of intoxicating drinks. It 
never pronounces a blessing on an intoxicant, and 
oftpn warns men against its use. Several passages 
forbid such use. 

2. The Bible, in several passages, approves and 
commends abstinence from intoxicating beverages 
There is not a single verse in this book which 
condemns total abstinence. 

3. The whole spirit of the Word of God teaches 



His Law in the Book, ,5,1 

self-control and self-denial, both for our own sakes 
and for the good of our fellow- men. The only 
passage in which the word *' moderation" occurs 
has no reference whatever to '' moderate drink- 
ing." 

4. Lastly and chielly, 1 find that God's law 
against intoxicants written on the human BODY is 
not contradicted by his law written in this 
blessed book. Each one sustains and confirms 
the other. 

Here I might rest this argument. I trust that 
it has been made clear to you that total abstinence 
from these deceptive and deadly intoxicants is safe 
and sound and Scriptural. But, before closing, 
let me speak frankly, though briefly, in protest 
against certain views advocated by beloved breth- 
ren from whom it pains me to differ. 

It has been asserted that the use of intoxicating 
beverages is in itself neither morally wrong nor 
morally right, but is a '' matter of indifference." 
A man may drink alcoholic liquors without doing 
any wrong, or he may let them alone without any 
virtue in the act of refraining. The question of 
drinking or not drinking, often involves no more 
guilt or goodness than the question of getting up 
before sunrise or after sunrise in the morning ! 

Brethren, I solemnly protest that a question 
which practically involves the salvation or the 
damnation of millions is not to be '' whistled down 
the wind " in this summary fashion. I ask you, 
is it an indifferent matter whether you violate 
God's law against intoxicants written on your 



$2 God's Law on the Body and 

bodily constitutions ? Is it a matter of indifference 
to go against the whole tenor of God's Word ? Is 
it a matter of indifference to partake of that which 
doth bite like a serpent and sting like an adder ? 
Is it a matter of indifference for you, fellow- 
Christians, to give your sanction and example 
in favor of those drinking-customs which are 
cursing society and crowding hell with their vic- 
tims ? The proposition that the drinking of a 
glass of alcoholic intoxicant involves no moral 
right or moral wrong, strikes directly at God\«5 
law written on our bodies, and the law of selt- 
denial written in his book. There is not a grog- 
seller in Brooklyn who would ask to have his 
dramshop-door set open wider than that proposi- 
tion ! 

Again, it is often said that as the use of 
alcoholic beverages is intrinsically a matter of 
"indifference," it may be left to every man's con- 
science to decide. Individual conscience then 
becomes the arbiter. In reply to this postulate, 
I affirm that it is as much the duty of every man 
to regulate his conscience by the teachings of 
God on our bodies and in his book, as it is to re- 
gulate his watch by the movements of the sun. 
But suppose that a man's conscience allows him 
to use habitually the deceitful glass, will a convic- 
tion of conscience save him from the consequences 
of his acts ? 

Sixty 3^ears ago, there was an eminent clergy- 
man in New Jersey who used wine in order to 
arouse his nervous sensibilities while in the pul- 



His Law in the Book, 53 

pit He conscientiously believed that he could 
preach more eloquently and impressively while 
under the influence of alcoholic stimulant. But 
he soon found that he must increase the amount 
of his dram in order to quicken his jaded powers, 
and, before he was aware, he had fallen into 
drunkenness and public disgrace ! He afterwards 
repented in dust and ashes, and was restored to 
his ministerial office as a total abstainer. Now, 
this Christian minister followed the guidance of 
his deluded conscience until it threw him 
squarely against a divine law as immutable as 
the law of gravitation. And this may be the 
wretched fate of any man who does not enlighten 
his moral sense by the clear teachings of God 
and of human experience. Woe unto them that 
call evil good, and good evil ; that put darkness 
for light, and light for darkness ! '' There is a 
way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end 
thereof are the ways of death." 

A third proposition is laid down by those who 
hold to the ''liberty" of using intoxicating beve- 
rages, which reads thus : " 1 may use wine in mo- 
derate measure, but if I should at length find the 
appetite for it uncontrollable, I would never touch 
it again." We would smile at the verdant sim- 
plicity of this idea if it were not too sadly serious 
for laughter. Millions of drunkards now in per- 
dition have lulled themselves at first with this de- 
lusion until they found it as deceptive as the li- 
quors which they drank. When the appetite 
becomes "uncontrollable," it is too late. With 



54 God's Law on the Body and 

millions of inebriates, the awful appetite becomes 
their master before they suspect it. For " wine is 
a mocker." Whoso tampers with it must and 
will be " deceived thereby.'' This seductive and 
blinding quality inheres in the very nature of 
alcoholic stimulants. And upon this serpent-qua- 
lity of strong drink we base a moral duty to let 
the adders' nest alone. No man has a moral right 
to thrust his finger into the cockatrice's den. 

Finally, it has been affirmed that this beneficent 
total abstinence reform — which has been so nobly 
defended by the Lyman Beechers and the Albert 
Barneses among the dead, and by the John Halls 
and the Newman Halls among the living — has no 
other basis to rest on than the principle of " ex- 
pediency." Let me here say that I rejoice to 
welcome to our ranks all good men and 
women who forswear the intoxicating cup be- 
cause they believe it expedient to do so. But 
for one, I practise total abstinence not only be- 
cause it is expedient, but because it is right. 
The longer I live, the more suspicious I grow as 
to the use of that word " expediency." It is 
rather too elastic. It often lacks " bottom " and 
backbone. As a principle of moral obligation, it 
will not always " hold water." Nay ; I have even 
known it to be made to hold several gallons of 
exceedingly bad liquor. I have caught it tip- 
pling slyly behind the door. I have seen it 
tripping up even some good men's heels, when a 
strong conviction of moral right would have held 
them as firm as the everlasting hills. 



His Law in the Book, 55 

To-day I advocate a total abstinence from ilco- 
holic poisons as a duty towards our God, .* duty 
to ourselves, and a duty to our tempted and suf- 
fering fellow-creatures. If the use of intoxicating 
beverages is forbidden by the law of God written 
on our bodies, and also by several direct prohi- 
bitions in God's "Word ; if such use is opposed to 
the well-being of man and to the glory of Jeho- 
vah, then is it our duty to let them alone. 

I therefore set before you the clear, straight path 
of total abstinence from all intoxicants. It is the 
safe path. It is the true path. It has led thou- 
sands to that cross of Jesus Christ which is the 
entrance to everlasting life and heaven's unfading 
glories. It is a path which has no ambushes, or 
pitfalls for the unwary footstep. 

This is the way, walk ye in it ! And remember 
that no man was ever yet lost in a straight road ! 



THE EVIL BEAST. 

BY T. DEWITT TALMAGE. D.D. 



* It is mv son's coat an evil beast hath devoured him."— Gen. xxxvii. 33. 

JOSEPH'S brethren dipped their brother's coal 
in goat's blood, and then brought the dabbled 
garment to their father, cheating him with the 
idea that a ferocious animal had slain him, and 
thus hiding their infamous behavior. 

But there is no deception about that which we 
hold up to your observation to-night. A monster 
such as never ranged African thicket or Hindo- 
stan jungle hath tracked this land, and with bloody 
maw hath strewn the continent with the mangled 
carcasses of whole generations ; and thereare tens 
of thousands of fathers and mothers who could 
hold up the garment of their slain boy, truthfully 
exclaiming, '' It is my son's coat ; an evil beast 
hath devoured him." 

T-here has, in all ages and climes, been a ten- 
dency to the improper use of stimulants. Noah, 
as if disgusted with the prevalence of water in his 
time, took to strong drink. By this vice, Alexan- 
der the Conqueror was conquered. The Romans 
at their feasts fell off their seats with intoxication. 
Four hundred millions of our race are opium-eat- 
ers. India, Turkey, and China have groaned with 
the desolation ; and by it have been quenched 



The Evil Beast. 

such lights as Halle}' and De Quincey. One hun- 
dred millions are the victims of the betel-nut, 
which has specially blasted the East Indies. Three 
hundred millions chew hashish, and Persia, Brazil, 
and Africa suffer the delirium. The Tartars em- 
ploy murowa ; the Mexicans, the agave ; the peo- 
ple at Guarapo, an intoxicating quality taken from 
sugar-cane ; while a great multitude, that no man 
can number, are the disciples of alcohol. To it 
they bow. Under it they are trampled. In its 
trenches they fall. On its ghastly holocaust they 
burn. 

Could the muster roll of this great army be 
called, and they could come up from the dead, 
what eye could endure the reeking, festering 
putrefaction and beastliness ? What heart could 
endure the groan of agony ? 

Drunkenness : Does it not jingle the burglar's 
key? Does it not whet the assassin's knife? Does 
it not cock the highwayman's pistol ? Does it not 
wave the incendiar3^'s torch ? Has it not sent the 
physician reeling into the sick-room ; and the 
minister with his tongue thick into the pulpit? 
Did not an exquisite poet, from the very top of 
his fame, fall a gibbering sot, into the gutter, on 
his way to be married to one of the fairest daugh- 
ters of New England, and at the very hour the 
oride was decking herself for the altar ; and did 
he not die of delirium tremens, almost unattend* 
ed, in a hospital ? 

Tamerlane asked for one hundred and sixty 
thousand skulls with which to build a pyramid to 



The Evil Beast, 

his own honor. He got the skulls, and bnilt the 
pyramid. But if the bones of all those who have 
fallen as a prey to dissipation could be piled up, it 
would make a vaster pyramid. 

Who will g-ird himself for the journey, and try 
with me to scale this mountain of the dead — go- 
ing up miles high on human carcasses to find still 
other peaks far above, mountain above moun- 
tain, white with the bleached bones of drunk- 
ards? 

I will begin at our National and State capitals. 
Like government, like people. Henry VIII. 
blasted all England with his example of unclean- 
ness. Catharine of Russia drags down a whole 
empire with her nefarious behavior. No Chris- 
tian man can be indififereni: to what, every hour of 
every day, goes on at Washington. While the 
Presidential Impeachment Trial advanced, some 
of the men who were to render their solemn ver- 
dict on the subject were reeling in and out of the 
Senate Chamber — the intoxicated representatives 
of a free Christian people. It was a great ques- 
tion whether several members of that high court 
could be got sober in time to vote. 

Only recently, a senator from New England 
rises up with tongue so thick, and with utterance 
so nonsensical, that he is led into the ante-room. 
He was a good Republican. 

One of the Middle States has a representative 
who very rarely appears in his seat, for the reasoF 
that he is so great an inebriate that he canneithe* 
walk nor ride. He is a good Democrat. 



The Evil Beast. 

As God looks down on our State and National 
Legislatures, he holds us responsible. We cast 
the votes. We lift up the legislators. 

Will the time never come when this nation 
shall rise up higher than partisanship, and cast its 
suffrage for sober men ? 

The fact is, that the two millions of dollars which 
the liquor dealers raised for the purpose of sway- 
ing State and National legislation has done its 
work, and the nation is debauched. Higher than 
legislatures or the Congress of the United States 
is the Whiskey Ring ! 

The Sabbath has been sacrificed to the rum 
traflfic. To many of our people, the best day of 
the week is the worst. Bakers must keep their 
shops closed on the Sabbath. It is dangerous to 
have loaves of bread going out on Sunday. The 
shoe store is closed: severe penalty will attack 
the man who sells boots on the Sabbath. But 
down with the Avindow-shutters of the grogshops! 
Our laws shall confer particular honor upon the 
rum traffickers. All other trades must stand aside 
for these. Let our citizens who have disgraced 
themselves by trading in clothing, and hosiery, 
and hardware, and lumber, and coal take off their 
hats to the rum-seller, elected to particular honor. 
It is unsafe for any other class of men to be allow^ed 
license for Sunday work. But swing out your 
signs, Oye traffickers in the peace of families, and 
in the souls of immortal men ! Let the corks fly, 
and the beer foam, and the rum go tearing down 
the half-consumed throat of the mebriate. God 



The Evil Beast. 

does not see ! Does he ? Judgment will nevei 
come ! Will it ? 

People say, *' Let us have more law to correct 
this evil." We have more law now than we exe- 
cute. In what city is there a mayoralty that dare 
do it ? The fact is, that there is no advantage in 
having the law higlier than public opinion. What 
would be the use of the Maine Law in New York? 
Neal Dow, the Mayor of Portland, came out with 
a posse, and threw the rum of the city into the 
street. But I do not believe there are three 
mayors in the U/iited States with his courage or 
nobility of spirit. 

I do not know but that God is determined to let 
drunkenness triumph, and the husbands and sons 
of thousands of our best families be destroyed by 
this vice, in order that our people, amazed and in- 
dignant, may rise up and demand the extermina- 
tion of this municipal crime. There is a way of 
driving down the hoops of a barrel so tight that 
they break. 

We are, in this country, at this time, trying to 
regulate this evil by a tax on whiskey. You 
might as well try to regulate the Asiatic cholera 
or the small-pox by taxation. The men who dis- 
til liquors are, for the most part, unscrupulous, and 
the higher the tax, the more inducement to illicit 
distillation. New York produces forty thousand 
gallons of whiskey every twenty-four hours, and 
the most of it escapes the tax. The most vigilant 
officials fail to discover the cellars, and vaults, and 
sheds where this work is done. 



The Evil Beast. 

Oh ! the folly of trying to restrain an evil by 
government tariff! If every gallon of whiskey 
made — if every flask of wine produced, should be 
taxed a thousand dollars, it would not be enough 
to pay for the tears it has wrung from the eyes of 
widows and orphans, nor for the blood it has dash- 
ed on the Christian church, nor for the catastro- 
pheof the millions it has destroyed for ever. 

I sketch two houses in this street. The first is 
bright as home can be. The father comes at 
nightfall, and the children run out to meet him. 
Luxuriant evening meal. Gratulation, and S3'm- 
pathy, and laughter. Music in the parlor. Fine 
pictures on the wall. Costly books on the stand. 
Weil-clad household. Plenty of everything to 
make home happy. 

Hoyse the second : Piano sold yesterday by the 
sheriff. Wife's furs at pawnbroker's shop. Clock 
gone. Daughter's jewelry sold to get flour. Car- 
pets gone off the floor. Daughters in faded and 
patched dresses. Wife sewing for the stores. 
Little child with an ugly wound on her face, 
struck in an angry blow. Deep shadow of wretch- 
edness falling in every room. Door-bell rings. 
Little children hide. Daughters turn pale. Wife 
holds her breath. Blundering step in the hall. 
Door opens. Fiend, brandishing his fist, cries, 
'' Out ! out ! What are you doing here ?" 

Did I call this house the second ? No ; it is the 
same house. Rum transformed it. Rum em^ 
bruted the man. Rum sold the shawl. Rum tore 
up the carpets. Rum shook his fist. Rum deso 



The Evil Beast. 

lated the hearth. Rum changed that paradise 
into a hell ! 

I sketcn two men that you know very well 
The first graduated from one of our literary iiioti- 
tutions. His father, mother, brothers, and sisters 
were present to see him graduate. They heard 
the applauding thunders that greeted his speech. 
They saw the bouquets tossed to his feet. They 
saw the degree conferred and the diploma given. 
He never looked so well. Everybody said, 
'* What a noble brow I What a fine eye ! What 
graceful manners ! What brilliant prospects !" All 
the world opens before him, and cries, '* Hurrah ! 
hurrah !" 

Man the second : Lies in the station-house to- 
night. The doctor has just been sent for to bind 
up the gashes received in a fight. His hair is 
matted, and makes him look like a wild beast. 
His lip is blood}^ and cut. 

Who is this battered and bruised wretch that 
was picked up by the police, and carried in drunk, 
and foul, and bleeding? 

Did I call him man the second ? He is man the 
first! Rum transformed him. Rum destroyed 
his prospects. Rimi disappointed parental expec- 
tation. Rum withered those garlands of com- 
mencement day. Rum cut his lip. Rum dashed 
out his manhood. RuM, accursed RUM ! 

This foul thing gives one swing to its scythe, 
and our best merchants fall ; their stores are sold; 
and they sink into dishonored graves. 

Again it swings its scythe, and some of our best 



The Evil Beast. 

physicians fall into sufferings that their wisest pr© 
scriptions cannot cure. 

Again it swings its scythe, and ministers of the 
Gospel fall from the heights of Zion, with long 
resounding crash of ruin and shame. 

Some of your own households have already 
been shaken. Perhaps you can hardly admit it ; 
but where was your son last night? Where was 
he Friday night ? Where was he Thursday night ? 
Wednesday night ? Tuesday night ? Monday 
night ? 

Nay, have not some of you in your own bodies 
felt the power of this habit ? You think that you 
could stop ? Are you sure you could ? Go on a 
little further, and 1 am sure you cannot. I think, 
if some of you should try to break away, you 
would find a chain on the right wrist, and one on 
the left ; one on the right foot, and another on the 
left. This serpent does not begin to hurt until it 
has wound round and round. Then it begins to 
tighten, and strangle, and crush, until the bones 
crack, and the blood trickles, and the eyes start 
from their sockets, and the mangled wretch cries, 
'' O God ! O God ! help ! help !" But it is too 
late ; and not even the fires of woe can melt the 
chain when once it is fully fastened. 

I have shown you the evil beast. The ques- 
tion is, Who will hunt him down, and how shall 
we shoot him ? I answer, First, by getting oui 
children right on this subject. Let them grow up 
with an utter aversion to strong drink. Take care 
how you administer it even as medicine. If you 



The Evil Beast. 

find that the}^ have a natural love for it, as some 
have, put in a glass of it some horrid stuff, 
and make it utterly nauseous. Teach them, as 
faithfully as you do the catechism, that rum is a 
fiend. Take them to the almshouse, and show 
them the wreck and ruin it works. Walk with 
them into the homes that have been scourged by 
it. If a drunkard hath fallen into a ditch, take 
them right up where they can see his face, bruised 
savage, and swollen, and say, " Look, my son. 
Rum did that !" Looking out of your >^-'indow at 
some one who, intoxicated to madness, goes 
through the street, brandishing his fist, blasphem- 
mg God, a howling, defying, shouting, reeling, 
raving, and foaming maniac, say to your «;on, 
'' Look; that man was once a child hke you." As 
you go by the grogshop, let them know that that 
is the place where men are slain, and their wives 
made paupers, and their children slaves. Hold 
out to your children all warnings, all rewards, all 
counsels, lest in after-days they break your heart 
and curse your gray hairs. 

A man laughed at my father for his scrupulous 
temperance principles, and said : '' I am more lib- 
eral than you. I always give my children the sugar 
in the glass after we have been taking a drink." 

Three of his sons have died drunkards, and the 
fourth is imbecile through intemperate habits. 

Again, we will battle this evil at the ballot-box. 
How many men are there who can rise above the 
feelings of partisanship, and demand that our offi 
cials shall be sober men ? 



The Evil Beast. 

I maintain that the question of sobriety is higher 
than the question of availability ; and that, how- 
ever eminent a man's services may be, if he nave 
habits of intoxication, he is unfit for any office in 
the gift of a Christian people. Our laws will bo 
no better than the men who make them. 

Spend a few days at Harrisburg, or Albany, or 
Washington, and you will find out why, upon 
these subjects, it is impossible to get righteous en« 
actments. 

Again, we will war upon this evil by organized 
societies. The friends of the rum traffic have 
banded together; annually issue their circulars; 
raise fabulous sums of money to advance their in- 
terests ; and by grips, pass-words, signs, and strat- 
agems set at defiance public morals. Let us con- 
front them with organizations just as secret, and, 
if need be, with grips, and pass-words, and signs 
maintain our position. There is no need that our 
philanthropic societies tell all their plans. I am 
in favor of all lawful strategy in the carr3^ing on 
of this conflict. I wish to God we could lay un- 
der the wine-casks a train which, once ignited, 
would shake the earth with the explosion of this 
monstrous iniquity ! 

Again, we will try the power of the pledge. 
There are thousands of men who have been saved 
b}^ putting their names to such a document. I 
know it is laughed at ; but there are some men 
vvho, having once promised a thing, do it. '* Some 
have broken the pledge." Yes; they were liars. 
But all men are not liars. I do not say that 4t is 



The Evil Bm<it. 

the duty of all persons to make such signature 
but I do say that it would be the salvation of 
many of you. 

The glorious work of Theobald Mathew can 
never be estimated. At his hand four millions of 
people took the pledge, and multitudes in Ireland, 
England, Scotland, and America have kept it till 
this day. The pledge signed to thousands has 
been the proclamation of emancipation. 

Again, we expect great things from inebriate 
asylums. They have already done a glorious 
work. I think that we are coming at last to treat 
inebriation as it ought to be treated, namely, as an 
awful disease, self-inflicted, to be sure, but never- 
theless a disease. Once fastened upon a man, ser- 
mons won't cure him ; temperance lectures will not 
eradicate it; religious tracts will not remove it; 
the Gospel of Christ will not arrest it. G \ce un- 
der the power of this awful thirst, the man is 
bound to go on ; and, if the foaming glass were on 
the other side of perdition, he would wade through 
the fires of hell to get it. A young man in prison 
had such a strong thirst for intoxicating liquors 
that he-cut off his hand at the wrist, called for a 
bowl of brandy in order to stop the bleeding, 
thrust his wrist into the bowl, and then drank the 
contents. 

Stand not, when the thirst is on him, between a 
man and his cups. Clear the track for him. 
Away with the child- en ; he would tread their life 
out. Away with the wife ; he would dash her to 
death. Away with the cross; he would run it 



The Evil Beast. 

down. Away with the Bible ; he would tear it up 
for the winds. Away with heaven ; he considers 
it worthless as a straw. "Give me the drink! 
(jive it to me! Though hands of blood pass up 
the bowl, and the soul trembles over the pit — the 
drink! give it to me! Though it be pale with 
tears ; though the froth of everlasting anguish 
float on the foam — give it to me ! I drink to my 
wife's woe ; to my children's rags ; to my eternal 
banishment from God, and hope, and heaven! 
Give it to me ! the drink !" 

Again, we will contend against these evils by 
trying to persuade the respectable classes of soci- 
ety to the banishment of alcoholic beverages. 
You v/ho move in elegant and refined associa- 
tions ; you who drink the best liquors ; you who 
never drink until you lose your balance, let us 
look each other in the face on this subject. You 
have, under God, in your power the redemption 
of this land from drunkenness. Empty your cel- 
lars and wine-closets of the beverage, and then 
come out and give us your hand, your vote, your 
prayers, your sympathies. Do that, and I will 
promise three things : First, That you will find 
unspeakable happiness in having done your duty. 
Secondly, You will probably save somebody — • 
perhaps your own child. Thirdly, you will not, 
in your last hour, have a regret that you made the 
sacrifice, if sacrifice it be. 

As long as you make drinking respectable, 
drinking customs will prevail, and the ploughs 
share of death, drawn by terrible disasters, wil. 



The Evil Beast. 

go on turning up this whole continent, from end 
to end, with the long, deep, awful furrow of 
drunkards' graves. 

Oh I how this rum fiend would like to go and 
hang up a skeleton in your beautiful house, so that, 
when you opened the front door to go in, you 
would see it in the hall ; and, when you sat at your 
table, you would see it hanging from the wall ; 
and, when you opened your bedroom, you would 
find it stretched upon your pillow ; and, waking 
at night, you would feel its cold hand passing 
over your face and pinching at your heart. 

There is no home so beautiful but it may be de- 
vastated by the awful curse. It throws its jargon 
into the sweetest harmony. What was it that 
silenced Sheridan's voice, and shattered the gold- 
en sceptre with which he swayed parliaments and 
courts ? What foul sprite turned the sweet 
rhythm of Rooert Burns into a tuneless babble ? 
What brought down the majestic form of one who 
awed the American Senate with his eloquence, and 
after a while carried him home dead-drunk from 
the office of Secretary of State? What was it 
that swamped the noble spirit of one of the heroes 
of the last war, until, the other night, in a drunken 
fit, he reeled from the deck of a Western steamer, 
and was drowned ? There was one whose voice 
we all loved to hear. He was one of the most 
classic orators of the century. People wondered 
wh}^ a man of so pure a heart and so excellent a 
life should have such a sad countenance always. 
They knew not that his wife was a sot. 



The Evil Beast, 

1 call upon those who are guilty of these mduU 
gences to quit the path of death. Oh ! what a 
change it would make in your home! Do you 
see how everything there is being desolated t 
Would you not Hke to bring back joy to your 
wife's heart, and have your children come out to 
meet you with as much confidence as once they 
showed ? Would you not like to rekindle the 
home-lights that long ago were extinguished ? It 
is not too late to change. It may not entirely ob- 
literate from your soul the memory of wasted 
years and a ruined reputation, nor smooth out 
from 3'our anxious brow the wrinkles which trou- 
ble has ploughed. It may not call back unkind 
words uttered or rough deeds done ; for perhaps 
in those awful moments you struck her ! It may 
not take from your memor}" the bitter thoughts 
connected with some little grave. But it is not 
too late to save 3^ourself, and secure for God and 
your family the remainder of your fast-going 
life. 

But perhaps you have not utterly gone astray, 
I may address one who may not have quite made 
up his mind. Let your better nature speak out. 
You take one side or the other in the war against 
drunkenness. Have you the courage to put your 
fuot downright; and say'to vour companions and 
friends, *' I will never drink intoxicating liquor in 
all my life ; nor will I countenance the habit in 
others " ? Have nothing to do with strong drink: 
It has turned the earth into a place of skulls, and 
has stood opening the gate to a lost world to let 



The Evil Beast, 

ni its victims, until now the door swings no more 
upon its hinges, but, day and night, stands wide 
open to let in the agonized procession of doomed 
men. 

Do I address one whose regular work in life is 
to administer to this appetite ? For Go.d's sake, 
get out of that business ! If a woe be pronounced 
upon the man who gives his neighbor drink, how 
many woes must be hanging over the man who 
does this every day and every hour of the 
day ! 

God knows better than you do yourself the 
number of drinks you have poured out. You 
keep a list ; but a more accurate list has been kept 
than yours. You may call it Burgundy, Bourbon, 
Cognac, Heidsieck, Hock : God calls it strong 
drink. Whether you sell it in low oyster cellar 
or behind the polished counter of first-class hotel, 
the divine curse is upon you. I tell you plainly 
that you will meet your customers one day when 
there will be no counter between you. When 
your work is done on earth, and you enter the re- 
ward of your business, all the souls of the men 
whom you have destroyed will crowd around you, 
and pour their bitterness into your cup. They 
will show you their wounds, and say, '' You made 
them "; and point to their unquenchable thirst, 
and say, '' You kindled it "; and rattle their chain, 
and say, '' You forged it." Then their united 
groans will smite your ear ; and, with the hands 
out of which you once picked the sixpences and 
the dimes, they will push you off the verge of 



The Evil Beast, 

great precipices ; while rolling- up from beneath, 
and breaking among the crags of death, will 
?:hiinder: 

" Wc€ to him that giveth his neighbor drink /** 



The Good Samaritan. 



-'A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho," etc.— Luke x. 30. 

ALL are familiar with the circumstances which 
called forth this parable. A certain lawyer, 
not a lawyer as commonly understood by us, but 
rather what in our day would be denominated a 
divine, or expounder of the Scriptures. This man 
belonged to a class who among the Jews made the 
Bible their peculiar study, and who were there- 
fore regarded as authorities on all questions con- 
nected with the laws of Moses. Having heard 
of him whose fame filled the land, this lawyer, 
with a desire perhaps to ascertain whether Jesus 
was as great a Teacher as reported, put this 
question to the Saviour, *' Master, what shall I do 
to inherit eternal life?" Knowing who it was 
that asked the question, and his motive in so do- 
ing, Jesus replied by asking a question directly in 
the line of the interrogator's profession, *' What is 
written in the law ? how readest thou ? " To this 
the lawyer replied by reciting the sum of the ten 
commandments. "This do," said Jesus, "and 
thou shalt live." Conscious that all this he had not 
done, yet unwilling to acknowledge it, and think- 
ing he sees a door open through which he can 
escape from the dilemma into which his own 
question has brought himself, he asks, " Who is my 



74 The Good Samaritan. 

neighbor?" hoping that if the term neighbor can 
be kept within narrow limits, he may yet be all 
right. In reply, our Lord narrates the beautiful 
and touching story of the Good Samaritan, tne 
parable which we have chosen as the theme of 
our morning's discourse. 

THE SCENE 

is laid in a wild and rocky district of country ly- 
ing between Jerusalem and Jericho, whose moun- 
tain caves furnish hiding-places to men as savage 
as the scenes they infest. The testimony of the 
Jewish historian, Josephus, as well as that of 
Jerome and others, confirms the Gospel narrative 
as to the dangers which beset travellers journey- 
ing between these two large cities ; yea, so many 
murders had been committed at one particular 
part of the road that it was called the Red or 
Bloody Way; and so unsafe had it become for 
travellers, that Jerome states the Romans found 
it necessary to erect a fort there for their pro- 
tection. It was somewhere among the rocky 
defiles of this road that the traveller was waylaid 
by robbers, wounded, stripped, robbed, and left 
half-dead. Now, if there be a traveller robbed 
and wounded on the journey of life, it is the 
drunkard ; and, if there be a bloody path in the 
journey of life, that path is the way which the 
drunkard pursues ; and if there be a class of men 
to be met with who, answering to the description 
of those who infested — for the purposes of plunder 
and murder — the road between Jerusalem and 



The Good Samaritan, 7S 

Jericho, is it not that class who waylay the un- 
wary at ever}^ turn, and prey upon the vices, 
weaknesses, and excesses of the thoughtless 
drunkard ? 

THE OBJECT. 

(i.) In the injuries he received. — This traveller 
was wounded and left half-dead ; loss of blood and 
exposure Avould doubtless, if help had not been 
rendered, have speedily deprived him of life. Does 
it fare any better with the victim of strong drink? 

(a.) There are the physical injuries he receives. 
I need not prove to you that alcohol from its very 
nature cannot be received into the human system 
without doing it violence. The drunkard does 
not need a doctor's certificate with 2,000 names 
attached to convince him that intoxicating drink 
is his enemy. What are his feelings subsequent 
to a debauch? His head aches dreadfully, the 
skin is dry, the mouth is parched, and thirst ex- 
cessive. Look at his eyes — where is their wonted 
fire? Listen to him when he speaks — his very 
yoice is changed. There is not a blood-vessel 
that does not suffer from the scorching liquid. 
Every vein in his body is made a highway for 
torture to travel on. There is not a nerve in the 
whole animal economy escapes the withering in- 
iluence. The heart, the lungs, the liver, the 
stomach, all suffer. Their natural action is 
destroyed, and the train is laid for a variety of 
diseases. 

(b,) There are mental injuries. It is not the 
body alone which suffers. The wound reaches 



/^'^ The Good Samaritan. 

back to that mysterious nature which sits modestly 
concealed behind its veil of clay. Alcohol, though 
affecting more or less the whole system, is peculi- 
arly a brain poison. Now, as the brain is the organ 
of the mind, you cannot injure, alter, or poison 
the brain, without equally injuring, altering, and 
poisoning the mind. A few doses of laudanum 
will at once convince the greatest sceptic of this 
fact. But alcohol not only attacks the brain and 
mind ; it affects particular portions of the brain, 
and hence particular faculties of the mind, in 
different ways. Thus all observation proves that 
it weakens and subverts the will, confuses and 
perverts the intellectual powers, diminishes and 
lowers the consciousness and other moral senti- 
ments, whilst it, at the same time, intensifies the 
imagination and other aesthetic faculties, and goads 
on the mere animal faculties and propensities to 
mastery and dominion over all. You may tell me 
that these results only follow excess ; if only enough 
be taken to produce ''exhilaration," ''pleasurable 
excitement," no such effects are produced. No 
doubt this exhilaration, by heightening the aesthe- 
tic faculties, produces a greater flow of language, 
eloquence, and wit. But is it not the fact that, 
when people are thus exhilarated by drink, 
they will say and do improper things they would 
otherwise have left unsaid and undone ; they will 
tell secrets, are more rash and venturesome, and 
oh ! how often is "the wine-strong Hercules 
struck down by his own club" — his strength gone, 
he reels, and babbles, and falls, as if affected by 



The Good Samaritan, 77 

the paralysis of the insane ; yea, how often does 
the scene close in insanity. 

(c) There are the moral injuries. Who can 
drink without a deterioration of the moral faculty, 
a deadening of conscience ? What is the meanness 
and dishonesty to which a drinker will not con 
descend ; and from which he would recoil but 
for the depraving influence under which he has 
placed himself? Like a hot-blast furnace, alcohol 
intensifies a man's natural depravity, and develops 
principles of evil which might never have reached 
maturity but for the vigor which it imparts to them. 

2. The Sufferings Endured. — What must have 
been the mental anguish of this poor man when 
left by the robbers ? Even at the present day, tra- 
vellers tell us that of all the roads travelled, this 
between Jerusalem and Jericho is the most dan- 
gerous, and that travellers are rarely allowed by 
the Governor of Jerusalem to proceed to Jericho 
and the Dead Sea without an escort, so thickly 
is it infested with robbers. How did this poor 
wounded man know but that his assailants might 
return and complete their work of blood, or that 
others as merciless might finish what they had 
begun ; or, if let alone by man, there were vul- 
tures and wolves who might sweep down upon 
him at any moment ? Oh ! the anguish of mind as 
he there lay to die thus; the thought is agoniz- 
ing ! And it is when we consider the mental an- 
guish of the poor victim of intemperance we 
realize somewhat of the curse and climax of his 
sorrows. The mind has capacities of suffering 



78 The Good Samaritan. 

'A which few but drunkards know aught. While 
the low and ignorant drinkers are not strangers 
to this mental anguish, how dreadful must the 
sufferings be in the case of those of superior 
minds and cultivation. A man may den); the 
Bible, he may argue himself into the disbelief of 
eternal realities, and yet, without the ministry of a 
Nathan, the hour will come when conscience will 
be more dreadful than the voice of any earthly 
prophet, as it peoples the scene around him with 
the remembrance of unforgiven sins and the 
ghosts of murdered joys. The inebriate awakes 
from his delirium delight to find himself in a very 
hell of agony. Others can gather joys from the 
past, but not he. Whut memories can he call up 
that he would not rather have buried for ever ? 
'' Oh ! the agony ! tne agony !" said one to me, 
the other day — a gentleman known throughout the 
whole land, endowed with as fine a mind as ever 
God gave to mortal, and whose sympathies and 
affections are as tender and loving as his intellect 
is great and noble, but who, yielding to temptation, 
became a victim to the " cup " — '' oh ! the agony ! 
the agony of these few days ! All the trials and 
sorrows and griefs of my past life (fifty years), and 
they have been neither few nor light, are not to 
be compared to the suffering of these few days. 
For," he added, '' in these I have had consolations 
and alleviations, but in this none. The essence 
of my misery is, it is self-p7'ocuredy No wonder, 
rather than endure such agonies, many seek re- 
fuge in the death of the suicide. 



The Good Samaritan. 79 

3. There is the Loss Sustained. — The thieves 
stripped the poor traveller of his raiment, robbed 
iiim of his money, his time, and his strength. All 
Ibis and something worse befalls the drunkard: 
he is robbed of that which is dearer to him than 
all — character. When character is gone, all that 
gives to human existence its worth and signifi- 
cance is gone, and man becomes no better than 
the brute, no better than a graven image ; he 
sinks to a level with the beast he drives, or the 
acres he ploughs. Now, of ail the causes which 
contribute to ruin character, the most formidable 
is intoxicating drink. 

I have seen, and you have seen, men in every 
department of human pursuit, ot the noblest na- 
tures and highest attainments, sacrificed to rum. 
I have seen, and you, too, perhaps, ladies of high 
birth, of generous affection, of accomplished man- 
ners and cultivated mind, excluded from the very 
society in which they were made drunkards, pen- 
sioned off in some cases, and doomed in the pri- 
vate asylum to a life of ignoble restrictions ; and 
in others, cast out for children to hoot at, and pass- 
ers-by to sigh over in sentimental pity. Oh ! 
what has not this accursed vice wrought in the 
way of ruining character ? What character so 
noble and so sacred that it has not blasted ? 
Touched by its hell-fire flames, I have seen, and 
you have seen, 'the laurel crown changed into 
ashes on the head of morning genius, and the 
wings of the poet scorched by it, and they who 
once played in the light of sunbeams and soared 



So The Good Samaritan. 

to Alpine heights of fame basely crawling' in the 
dust — the finest mind paralyzed, and the noblest 
intellect turned into drivelling idiotcy. 

Statesmen of no mean fame nor talents we have 
helped to lift out of Boston gutters. The ermine 
of the judge and the sacred robe of the divine we 
have seen sweeping the polluted floor of the bar- 
room. In all this, I speak what I know, and tes- 
tify to what I have seen. Men of God ! in whose 
pulpits we have spoken, and under whose preach- 
ing we have sat, and from whose hands we have 
received the communion elements, we have seen 
dragged from the altar, deposed from the minis- 
try, and degraded before the world as drunkards, 
and sent, blasted in character and reputation, 
with quivering lips, and a hell burning within the 
breast, to homes where once nestled loved ones, 
but whom they have beggared and disgraced. 
And these men — whom once I would have as little 
expected to fall as some of you — as you believe it 
possible that this vice shall yet degrade me from 
the pulpit, and cause my boy to blush at mention 
of his father's name — some of them lie in disho- 
nored graves, some are teaching school, Avhile 
others are seeking to eke out a living as pedlars 
of stationery and canvassers for books, and one, as 
common hostler in a public liver3^-stable of Bos- 
ton, has more than once curried the speaker's 
horse. Oh ! the tales we could -narrate. Away 
down in the lowest stratum of human miser}^ and 
degradation, how many formerly opulent mer- 
chants and prosperous tradesmen have we found 



The Good Samaritan. Si 

in our explorations ! But is the drinker the only 
sufferer ? No, no ! Who has not heard a thou- 
sand times repeated the story of the drunkard's 
home and the wrongs of wife and children. Oh ! 
the domestic sorrows, the miseries caused by 
drink ! Who shall tell of the tears of deserted, 
starving, wretched, bruised, bleeding, dying 
women produced by the drinking habits of hus- 
bands who once loved them, but who are now 
dead to every humane feeling, who have violated 
every sacred vow, and sundered every holy 
bond ? Who shall tell of children trembling at 
their own father's footsteps, and hiding from his 
violence ? Who shall tell how scenes of domestic 
bliss have been embittered and converted into 
scenes of the blackest, saddest misery and woe ? 
The history of these broken-hearted wives, 
starved, murdered children, like Ezekiel's roll, 
is written within " with lamentations and weep 
ings and woe." 

Nor in all this do we refer only to the homes 
of the poor, though scenes in such homes we 
have witnessed enough to make a man exclaim 
with Jeremiah, '■'■ O that mine head were waters, 
and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might 
weep day and night." 

One man, a fine mechanic, earning the highest 
wages, was once the head of a happy family, but 
drink entered, and happiness fled. His is the old 
story of descent. One night, I remember it well, 
this man came to his wretched home, as usual, a 
reeling drunkard ; his wife, who had been sick for 



"2 The Good Samaritan. 

some da3^S; was at this time very ill indeed The 
sight of her sobered to some extent the husband, 
and he acceded to her request to go and get some 
Medicine. Taking the prescription in his hand, 
he went to the druggist, got the medicine, but on 
his return was met by some of his associates^ who 
urged him to go and take just one drink with 
them. He j^ielded, drank, and forgot his errand 
and his suffering wife, and only left that bar-room 
when he was driven forth by its landlord. On 
reaching home he was too stupefied to help either 
himself or his wife. So he rolled himself over on 
the bed beside the suffering one. During the 
night the poor woman died — but terrible was that 
night. The heavens seemed on fire, the light- 
nings flashed, and the thunders roared. The ter- 
rific storm awoke the sleeper ; and on opening his 
eyes he saw beside him the corpse of her whom, 
before the speaker, at the altar of God, he had 
sworn to protect and cherish until death. Talk 
of the refined cruelty which the savage Indians 
of this land formerly exercised towards their vic- 
tims ! Oh ! what prolonged torture did that un- 
happy woman undergo, week after week, at the 
hands of her husband ! And drink did all this. 
A kinder husband, when he let drink alone, 
never lived. 

Done! Oh! what could we not tell? The 
money we have given to the girl, that the mo- 
ther might buy a coffin in which to lay the 
fonn of her dead child, has been taken from 
that girl by the father in spite of the en- 



The Good Samaritan. %\ 

treaties of the suffering mother, and, leaving the 
naked corpse of his child lying upon the table, 
where we found it, he has gone and spent the 
money for drink ! But there are homes never 
visited by the police in search of crime or to stay 
violence, nor by the missionary to feed the hun- 
gry or clothe the naked — homes of the outwardly 
respectable and even affluent, where there are 
ruined means, broken hearts, careworn faces, 
blasted reputations, untold sorrows ; and drink 
has done all ! Did time and delicacy peimit, I 
could detail, at length, cases which have come 
under my own observation, and in which my 
advice h^.s been sought, during my short resi- 
dence in Boston, saying nothing of my longer 
expedience in New York, which would call forth 
your deepest commiseration on behalf of the vic- 
tims, and rouse your just indignation against that 
which produces such misery. 

But you say we exaggerate. Exaggerate? Im- 
possible! As there are grand, bold, beautiful 
scenes in the physical world which no flight of 
fancy, no bold strokes of painting, no graphic 
powers of language, can accurately describe, so, 
in the moral world, there are scenes of sorrow, 
and starvation, and disease, and vice, and cruelty, 
and death, of which we can give no adequate idea. 
Let no one fancy we select the worst cases or pre- 
sent the worst side of the picture before them. 
Believe me, it s impossible to exaggerate; im- 
possible even truthfully to paint the effect of this 
vice either on those who are addicted to it or 



b4 The Good Samaritan, 

those who suffer from it. Are there i.ot many 
here who can testify to this? Ah! few indeed 
*are the families amongst us so happy as not tc 
have had some one near and dear to them either 
engulfed in this vice or hanging over the preci 
pice. I have read of a mother who saw her only 
son drowned before her eyes. Years came and 
went ere she could calmly look upon the ocean or 
hear, without pain, the roar of the billows where 
her son was lost. How many of you have greater 
cause for hating the sight of the cup that intoxi- 
cates ! Take your family record ; examine the 
roll. Is there not one name there that fills your 
heart with anguish ? Oh ! what memories are 
associated with that name ! What struggles with 
temptation it recalls ! What mingling of joys and 
sorrows, of hopes and fears ! What solemn vows 
made and violated ! what resolutions formed and 
broken ! and what a sad, sad end ! Oh ! the beg- 
gars, the widows, the orphans, the crimes, the 
woes caused by these drinks ! Truly might they 
be called the seven vials of his wrath, more de- 
structive in their consequences than war, plague, 
pestilence, or famine — yea, than all combined : 
slow, it may be, in their march, but oh ! they are* 
sure in their grasp, consigning the body to the 
tomb and the soul to hell! Yes, the soul; for "no 
drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God ;" and 
what standards, scales, or calculations can we com- 
mand to give us even a faint conception of the 
worth of one soul ? 



The Good Samaritan. 85 

n.— THE INDIFFERENCE AND NEGLECT WITH 
WHICH THE TRAVELLER WAS TREATED. 

While the poor man lay in his wretched condi- 
tion, a priest and a Levite came that way. So 
soon as the priest got his eye upon him, he kept 
as far off as he could ; and the Levite did little 
more, for, although he halted a moment and 
looked at him, he grudged the aid demanded 
and hurried away. Here are representative cha 
racters of many who treat the drunkard with simi- 
lar indifference and neglect. 

The priest did not so much as stop to look at 
the victim. It was by chance he came that way. 
Had h(2 known of this case of bleeding humanity, 
he would doubtless have gone another way. Also, 
how many are there who care not to look upon 
the victims of intemperance — who will not hear 
of them ! They never read a temperance tract, 
never hear a temperance sermon, nor attend a tem- 
perance meeting. They have no sympathy with 
any of this preaching temperance. Strange that 
there could be such inhumanity, and that, too, in 
the church! *' Thou shalt love thy neighbor" is 
a divine command. And '' who is my neighbor?" 
Every man is your neighbor, no matter what his 
condition, his clime, his nation. If he who could 
say, " ] am a Roman," could rouse in his behalf the 
sympathies of a whole mighty people, he who can 
say, '' I am a man," should touch the hearts of all 
mankind. The nature which is endowed with 
reason and destined for immortality, is not to be 



86 The Good Samaritan^ 

passed by as an ordinary thing- ; and what a pic- 
ture of a glorious nature in ruins ! You may mea- 
sure the height from which it has fallen by the 
depth to which it has sunk. The miserable drunk- 
ard that reels along your streets carries beneath 
his tattered rags a soul which kingdoms could not 
purchase — a wronged, a crushed, a ruined soul 
but still a soul ; and if God's Son could die for it, 
who may not care for it? Such, alas! there are. 
It was a ''priest'' that would not look upon the 
wounded traveller — a man who, by his profession, 
was bound to help him ; and, O God ! tell it not 
in Gath that professed disciples of him who found 
us in our blood, more than half-dead, robbed by 
sin, and sinking into death eternal, and died to 
save us, will pass by the poor victims of intem- 
perance and put not forth a hand to help to save 
them, but will themselves use the drunkard's drink 
and thus delude others to drink and become victims ! 
Not much better are they who are represented 
by the Levite. The Levite stopped and looked 
on the spectacle, but offered no relief. So thou- 
sands there are who thus treat intemperance and 
its victims. They may now and again read some 
temperance periodical, or occasionally listen to a 
temperance sermon, or give a dime or a dollar to 
help on the cause of temperance, but beyond that 
the}^ do nothing. As to putting forth any eftective 
effort to save the drunkard or to prevent others 
from becoming drunkards, they must not be asked. 
They would be benevolent, but it costs too much. 
Neither the priest nor the Levite w^ould have 



i 



The Good Samaritan, 87 

passed by the wounded man if they could have 
helped him at no expense of trouble or sacrifice. 
And so many would have no objection to help 
save the drunkard and stay the ravages of intem- 
perance, were it not for the sacrifices they would 
be called to make. They would have to give up 
their own favorite beverage, would be laughed at 
by some of their associates and ostracised by 
others. 

Yet why should Christians hesitate ? In every 
enterprise undertaken for the benefit of mankind, 
the Christian public have a part to perform ; but 
more especially when that enterprise aims at the 
moral improvement of the world. In questions 
of government, or matters of mere temporal con- 
cern, perhaps the Christian may find an apology 
for his neutrality, as being engaged in objects of a' 
higher and more sublime benevolence. But when 
vice is to be put down and virtue promoted, he is 
called upon by a voice which he cannot disregard 
— by the voice of religion and the voice of God — 
to take an active and a zealous part. There is no 
neutrality in this war. • hen vice prevails, he is 
an enlisted soldier, and should ever be found in 
armor. His sword should be always drawn and 
ready for the conflict. To do good is, and should 
be, his employment — the business of his life. 

That intemperance is a vice we have already 
seen. Can Christians be indifferent spectators of 
the desolations of this fell destroyer? Caa they 
view with apathy it§ ravages, and be guilt- 
less? 



88 The Good Samaritan, 



III. — THE HELP RENDERED. 

After the priest and Levite had passed on and 
iett the unfortunate traveller to die of his wounds, 
one of a more generous nature drew near. He 
looked upon the sight ; it touched his compas- 
sionate nature. And what though the wounded 
man may be a Jewish merchant and he a Samari- 
tan with whom the Jews have no dealings, but 
towards whom they cherish a bitter hatred ? — he 
was a needy, suffering man, and he has the means 
of helping him. So, instantly dismounting, he 
spoke kindly to the sufferer, examined his wounds, 
anointed them with oil, bound them up, gave him 
of the wine he had with him, placed him upon his 
beast, and, regardless of trouble and expense, con- 
veyed him to an inn, nursed him till the morning, 
and, when his business would not allow of his 
remaining longer, paid all the expenses, and gave 
his pledge to meet all subsequent charges, and 
then left him. Go thou and do for the drunkard 
what this Samaritan did for the man who fell 
among thieves. And what was this ? 

(i.) He sacrificed his Wine. — Some there are who 
would give up the stronger drinks, but would re- 
tain the lighter, or they would contribute of their 
means and sympathy towards relieving the drunk- 
ard or his family, but you must not ask them to 
give up their own beverage, whatever it may be. 
Of course, they will take it moderately ! This is a 
very easy kind of temperance help, yea, it is the 
very thmg that keeps the stream of intemperance 



The Good Samaritan. 89 

flowing. I have not time now — I wish I had — to 
speak of the evils of this moderate drinking. I 
wish I had time to show you that every reeling 
inebriate was once a moderate drinker, with as 
little thought of becoming a slave to this vice as 
any of you have to-day. I wish I had time to 
show you how moderation can never cure intem- 
perance, because it is the very cause of intemper- 
ance, and no cause of an evil can ever be its 
own remedy. I wish I had time to show you that 
excess is not, as some imagine and argue, the cause 
of intemperance, because it is intemperance itself, 
the effect and not the cause. I wish I had time to 
show you, my dear hearers, that not any of you 
are safe if you take intoxicating drinks at all. 
You need not tell me you hav^e used them for years 
and no harm comes fiom it; that you take but 
very little ; that you are educated, refined, culti- 
vated, even Christian. Ah ! let him that thinketh 
he standeth take heed lest he fall. I have already 
shown you that no station, proTession, or pursuit 
IS proof against his attacks if indulged in at all. 
Oh ! the secrets locked in this breast of the temp- 
tations and struggles of some of the noblest men 
and women, who had placed themselves by the 
first glass within the power of the enemy. Dr. 
Albert Day, who has made a specialty of alcoholic 
inebriation for years, informed me yesterday that 
during the last fourteen 3^ears over four thousand 
inebriates have been placed under his care for re- 
formation. Three-fourths of that number were 
men of position, education, and culture — senators 



90 The Good Samaritan. 

judges, presidents' sons, professors in colleges, 
doctors of divinity, doctors of medicine, lawyers, 
authors, artists, and merchants. How the fine 
gold has become dim ; the voice of the lute and 
the harp which delighted all been silenced ! And 
\\\\Q made these men drunkards? Where did 
men of education and refinement acquire the tip- 
pler's appetite ? Where but at the elegantly fur- 
nished tables of moderate drinkers, many of them 
moderate-drinking religious professors ! Why; 
then, think yourself safe ? But apart from this, 
intemperance is a monster you cannot kill as long 
as you feed it. All the weapons on earth fall 
harmless at its feet as long as you give it food. 
You may as well try to arrest the lightning in its 
course as stop that mighty stream of intemper- 
ance which at this moment flows over this land, as 
long as you supply the spring from which it 
issues. And mark you, all who help supply the 
fountain are partakers of the guilt ! Oh ! what 
a large proportion of the respectable and Christian 
community are at this moment engaged in the 
spread of intemperance. The more respectable 
his position, the more religious his character, the 
more pernicious and extended the influence of the 
Christian who uses it. It is the countenance 
which the respectable religious moderate drinkers 
give that upholds the traffic and enables the dealer 
to sell to the drunkard. Who but the vilest of the 
vile would engage in a trade for which drunkards 
wee the only customers ? 
Again, how can you seek to reclaim the inebri- 



The Good SamarUan. 91 

ate from his cups, and get him to abstain, while the 
bctti^-J is in your closet or the decanter on your 
sideboard ? But I pass to speak of the Samaritan 
who gave 

(2.) His mo7iey. — He gave his oil and money. 
Compared with the rescue of a poor wounded 
traveller, what was money to him? 1 say it, and 
say it without fear of contradiction, I know of no 
cause to which the benevolent ought to contribute 
more liberally. It is short-sighted charity that 
aims at the alleviation of drunken poverty merely, 
and yet nine-tenths of our poverty is nothing else. 
A better service cannot be rendered the commu- 
nity in the present day than the promotion of the 
Temperance cause. But to its promotion money 
is required ; and were the National Temperance 
Society, in whose behalf I this day plead, supplied 
with ample funds, the good accomplished might 
be indefinitely increased. 

(3.) TJiis Santaritaji sacrificed his time and labor. 
—The Samaritan took the wounded man to an inn 
and watched over him . Now, to save the drunkard 
similar help is needed. Yea, to prevent the chil- 
dren and youth from becoming drunkards, time 
and labor are necessary. I rejoice to know that 
hundreds of youwg men and j^oung women of this 
church are daily doing that very work. God bless 
them, and all associated with them, in their noble 
efforts. In one of our large cities, a fire broke out 
in a lofty dwelling. It was near midnight, and the 
flames had made headway before they were dis- 
covered. The fire companies rallied : the inmates 



92 The Good Samaritan, 

v^scaped in affright; and the firemen worked with 
a will to subdue the flames. The smoke had be- 
come so thick that the outlines of the house were 
scarcely visible, and the fiery element was raging 
with fearful power, when a piercing cry thrilled 
all hearts, as they learned that there was one per- 
son yet unsaved within the building. 

In a moment a ladder was swung through the 
flames, and planted against the heated walls, and 
a brave fireman rushed up its rounds to the rescue. 
Overcome by the smoke, and perhaps daunted 
by the hissing flames before him, he halted, and 
seemed to hesitate. It was an awful scene. A life 
hung in the balance, and each moment was an age. 
*' Cheer him !" shouted a voice from the crowd; 
and a wild " Hurrah ! " burst like a tempest from 
the beholding multitude. That cheer did the 
work ; and the brave fireman went upward, amid 
smoke and flame, and in a moment descended with 
the rescued man in his arms. When you see those 
sons and daughters of temperance battling with 
temptation, struggling with the difhculties and 
circumstances they must encounter in their work 
" — when, I say, you see them thus endeavoring to 
rescue the tempted and the fallen, and yet in an 
hour of weakness discouraged and about to retire 
from the work, then " cheer them ! " Who knows 
but your words of S3'm pathetic kindness may 
encourage fainting hearts, strengthen feeble knees, 
and fix the wavering purpose for nobler deeds ? 

So nmch, dear friends, as to what we should do 
for the drunkard. What shall we do with the 



The Good Samaritan, 91 

DRUNKARD-MAKERS ? 

In Other words, How is the way of hfe to be 
made safe for travellers ? If robbers on the high- 
way, who strip their victim of his clothes and 
treasures, and leave him half-dead, are not guilt 
less, how can those who strip their victim not onlr 
of his clothes and treasures, but of character and 
manhood and all noble virtues — and who, when thev 
bring their victims to the ground, leave them not 
half-dead merely, but twice dead — dead in body 
and in soul — be held guiltless ? and if we would 
clear society of the one, why not of the other 
class ? That the liquor stores are at the root of 
the evil, who doubts ? Here is kept the food of 
drunkenness ! Here is found the poison that initi- 
ates the temperate and finishes the intemperate. 
They are the schools of intemperance, and as long 
as they are permitted, the land will be infested 
with drunkenness. These are the Aceldamas of 
human blood, the shambles where thousands of 
lives are annually slaughtered, the licensed ma- 
chinery which turns health into disease, decency 
into rags, love into hatred, young beauty into 
loathsomeness, mother's milk into poison, mother's 
hearts into stone, and the image of God into some- 
thing baser than the brute. And can any one be 
engaged in this traffic and not know the mischief 
he is doing ? Can he supply the lava which scorches 
the land and be innocent? Does he not know the 
effects of that in which he trades? Does he not 
know that of those who drink many will be 



94 The Good Samaritan. 

drunken? and can he supply the cause, and detach 
himself from the effect? Can he hurl firebrands 
through the city and witness the conflagration, 
and claim exemption from blame? Can he spread 
contagion through your families, and, when he 
hears the dying groans and sees the funeral, tell 
you that he is innocent? He may tell you that he 
frowns upon intemperance, and sells not to the 
drunkard — so perhaps he may. He v/ill sell till 
the wretch is made drunk, and then refuse him, till 
he is made sober again. But it is too late to talk 
about denying him now. The man is ruijted, and 
the dealer puts the instrument in his hand with 
which he struck the blow. Do not sell to drunk- 
ards ! Is it a less evil to make drunkards of sober 
men, or to kill drunkards ? Ask that widowed 
mother who did her the greatest evil — the man 
who only put her drunken husband in the grave, 
thus freeing her of his cruelties, or the mian who 
made a drunkard of her only son? Ask those 
orphan children who did them the greatest in- 
jury — the man who made their once sober, kind, 
and iiffectionate- father a drunkard, and thus 
blasted all their hopes, and turned their sweet 
home into the emblem of hell ; or the man who, 
after they had suffered for years the anguish, the 
indescribable anguish of the drunkard's children, 
and seen their heartbroken mother in danger 
of an untimely grave, only killed their father, 
and thus brought peace and quietness to their 
home, which of those two men brought upon the 
childi"en the greatest evil? Can you doubt? 



The Good Samaritan, 95 

Now, what is to be done to close up these pest- 
nouses — to seal up these fountains of desolation ? 
Do? Wh}', persuade the keepers of them to leave 
their trade, we are told! Persuade them ? Have 
you ever tried it? I have, and must confess with 
poor results. When you can arrest the lightning-, 
stiil the thunder, and turn back the sea, then you 
may hope of success. Persuade men to give up 
their nefanous traffic ! Why not endeavor to 
check the evils of lottery, gambling, and prosti- 
tution by appeals to the consciences of the keepers 
of lo'.rery and gambling houses and dens of in- 
famy? Persuade fnen ! There are men — unprin- 
cipled men — so actuated by selfishness that they 
wjii sell till the iron grasp of the law seizes them 
and compels them to stop. Anxious neighbors 
may reason with them ; wives in rags and tears 
may entreat them ; barefooted, hunger-bitten chil- 
dren may appeal to them, and still they will sell. 
As long as mone}- can be made by the traffic, 
there are men who would build their groggery in 
the crater of a volcano^; they would sell rum amid 
the heavings of an earthquake; and as the drunk- 
ard steps down the bank and hangs, suspended by 
a single twig, ove»- the bottomless pit, they would 
put between his chattering teeth the draught that ' 
would ujmerve hlj arm and plunge him into an 
eternal abyss. And shall we talk of moral suasion 
to such men, j<,nd let them continue their damning 
work because they will not be persuaded ? 

Wnat, then, would you do ? Do with them as 
you Avould with every foe to society. If the traf- 



9^ The Good Samaritan. 

fickers in rum aie engaged in a calling that is 
inimical to e\ cry interest of humanity and reli- 
gion, then treat them as you would those simi- 
larly engaged. Suppose a class of men should 
advertise themselves as men who had for sale 
consumptions, and fevers, and palsies, and apo- 
plexies, and deliriums, and death, what would the 
public say ? What the Christian public ? Yea, 
what would our authorities feel called upon to 
do ? The public voice would call for punishment 
to be meted out to such foes of humanity ; and 
the rulers that would not take speedy vengeance 
would be execrated and removed. Should a class 
of persons attempt to dig pitfalls in our public 
streets to ensnare passengers, or should they 
make use of bloodhounds to tear- and devour our 
useful citizens, or hire a company of cut-throats to 
drag out our young men \vc^m their peaceful 
homes and murder them in -ur streets, what 
would our authorities do ? Tell me where, in the 
eye of eternal justice, is the diiference between 
him who strikes the blow of death and him who 
knowingl}^ maddens the brain and tempts and 
fires the soul to strike it } 

The very worst that has beer* said against the 
devil is, that he first tempts his victim, then be- 
trays and punishes him throa[;h time and eter- 
nity. VVhat better are our so-called Christian 
laws and the liquor-dealers in the traffic in drink ? 
For money, they tempt and betray and punish 
the weakest of our race, and but too often send 
them to an eternity of woe ! If we have no olv 



The Good Samaritan, 97 

jections to passing laws against robbery, why ob- 
ject to passing laws against liquor-selling ? 

As long as these shops of temptation are open, 
who are safe ? You, or your children ? None ! 
And what shall become of our weaker brother, 
whom we have reclaimed, when temptation 
tracks his steps, and drinking companions are 
on the alert to drag him into one or other of 
the numerous dram-shops open on every side 
to allure and destroy ? No wonder so few re- 
claimed men are permanently saved. 

Less than two years ago, there died in his early 
prime a minister of the Gospel, who was first the 
victim, and at last the conqueror, of drink. Some 
years ago, after a severe illness, he stimulated by 
medical advice. When he had fairly recovered 
from his sickness, he found himself in the coils of 
a serpent. It was the old story, alas ! more than 
" twice told !" He fell, struggled to rise, stum 
bled, and fell again. He resolved, and resisted, 
prayed, and then in exhaustion yielded. At 
length, he was induced to enter an inebriate insti- 
tution, where for a year he remained, beloved and 
respected by all the officers. When his cure was 
supposed to be complete, he left to accept a call 
to a vacant pulpit, his heart still yearning to be 
engaged in his Lord's work. On enterino^ thrit 
church, he frankly told the people his weakness, 
and the terrible temptation to which he was sub- 
ject, and threw himself upon their sympathies 
and their prayers. The people rallied round him 
and nobly worked with him. Immensely popular 



9^ The Good Samaritan, 

m the ccmmunity, he labored with untiring zeai 
for the salvation of souls. His labors God richly 
blessed, but at the close of one year his strength 
gave way. Again was he tempted to stimulate 
and — resisted. By the help of divine grace and 
human sympathy, he stood. But he died — died a 
hero ! for he conquered the foe which conquered 
Alexander the Great, and by which many strong 
men have been slain. 

At his funeral, his wife seemed unusually com- 
posed. Wondering at this, the officiating clergy- 
man enquired of her about her apparently happy 
feelings. '' Oh !" said she, '* he's safe ! You 
don't know anything about what we have passed 
through. For years he and I have been standing 
on the brink of a precipice, trembhng with appre- 
hension that, at any time, he might go over. But 
now hes safe /" 

" Safe, indeed," says one ; " but what a danger 
is that from which death is the only escape and 
the grave the only refuge!" What an evil must 
that be which, when a man takes it into his bosom 
becomes a "slimy, gliding, writhing, biting, sting- 
ing adder, which winds itself around him, hisses 
its venom in his ear, and, when he hurls it from 
him and treads it under foot, pursues its fleeing 
victim to his death, and thrusts its forked tongue 
against the iron gateway of the sepulchre, until 
the loving wife exults to hear the clanging of 
death's gloomy doors, which none but Christ can 
open ; and the anguish of widowhood is forgotten 
in the thought that the loved one is safe at last 1 



The Good Samaritan. 99 

Brethren, if ever a cause demanded devotedness 
and sacrifice and energ-y, temperance is that cause. 
The interests at stake are the most momentous. 
Youthful hopes are at stake ; female virtue is at 
stake ; domestic happiness is at stake ; the church's 
piety is at stake ; the salvation of souls is at stake. 
And who is to do this work if not the lovers of 
God and humanity ? Come, then, *' to the help 
of the Lord — to the help of the Lord '\gainst the 
laig^hty i' 



melf-l^nial pr i\(t |romotion of lempcit^ie 



A DUTY AND A PLEASURE. 



*• If meat make my brother to offend, 1 will eat no flesH while the world 
■tandeth."— I Cor. virl 13. 

SUCH is the noble sentiment of the noblest of 
men. Some of the Corinthian believers had 
been converted to Christianity from idolatry ; 
others from Judaism. The Jews abhorred what- 
ever had been offered in worship to an idol ; but 
the G-entiies had not been thus educated. Some 
of the latter had eaten of the meat which had 
been offered to an idol, and having been in 
structed that an idol is nothing, thought it no 
harm to eat the sacrificial meat. But there were 
other Gentile converts who had not been so fax 
enlightened, and, not knowing the superior edu- 
cation of their brethren, were in danger of being 
led astray by their example. St. Paul appeals to 



I02 Self-Denial for the Promotion of 

the former in behalf of the latter. He concedes 
that an idol is nothing ; that meat offered thereto 
in worship is not thereby necessarily defiled ; that 
to eat thereof was not sin/fr se ; but because the 
eating thereof \vas a bad example, and tended to 
the spiritual injury of those for whom Christ 
died, he therefore appealed to them to desist 
from the practice. It was an appeal to Chris- 
tian magnanimity, to philanthropy, to self-denial. 
Himself the example of self-denial to all, in the 
fulness of his own great soul he assures them, 
in the language of the text: "■ If meat make my 
brother to offend^ I will eat no flesh while the 
world standetb."^ 

This incident in apostolic history suggests the 
line of thought of the present discourse on the 
subject of temperance. I propose to appeal ta 
the magnanimity of the better classes in societjf 
to discontinue the moderate use of wines and 
liquors, for the benefit of those who are in dan- 
ger of becoming confirmed inebriates. And in 
making this appeal, 1 propose to make cer- 
tain concessions ; to consider the efficaciousness 
of this proposed self-denial ; and then to enforce 
the duty by a variety of motives. 

I. 1 think we may concede three things. First, 
that wmes and liquors have their legitimate uses. 
I do not say that they are indispensable, and have 
no substitute; but it may be safely affirmed that 
they may be used beneficially. I am sure that 



Temperance a Duty and a Pleasure, 103 

every unbiassed man will feel with me bound to 
concede this much, and hence those ultra views, 
consigning wines and liquors to perdition, placing 
them under the ban of the Almighty and society, 
cannot find favor with calm and reflecting men. 
Had I time this morning, I could establish the 
fact beyond peradventure, beyond the shadow of 
a doubt, that there are two kinds of wine desig- 
nated in the Bible. On some future occasion, it 
may be our happiness to discourse on this very 
thought, and thereby relieve the Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whose power 

" The modest water, awed by power divine, 
Confessed its God, and blushing turned to wine," 

and thereby relieve other persons whose history 
is recorded in the Bible, and relieve many pas- 
sages of Scripture, from misapprehension, by 
showing the distinction between the good wine 
and bad, as recorded in the Bible. It is the 
utmost folly for any man to attempt to explain 
away certain passages of Scripture on any other 
hypothesis than the one just mentioned. 

Secondly, we are bound to concede that the 
man who drinks wine and liquor moderately is 
not a drunkard as denounced in the Holy Scrip- 
tures. By no fair interpretation of language, by 
no proper use of ideas, can such a man be 
brought under the ban of drunkenness as described 
in that passage, " No drunkard shall enter the 



Self-Denial for the Promotion of 

kingdom of heaven." Evidently Scriptural 
drunkenness implies a ruling passion, a degrad- 
ing slavery, and a power that has gained the 
mastery, which is superior to the man him- 
self 

In the next place, I think we are bound to 
concede that all moderate drinkers do not become 
confirmed inebriates. You and I can recall per- 
sons who, through a series of many years, have 
been moderate drinkers, and yet are not confirm- 
ed drunkards. The reason may be found in their 
physical organism, which is not susceptible to 
such influence in their case as in that of other 
persons. They may drink as much and even 
more per day than those who are more sensibly 
affected by the same or less quantity. One in- 
halation of chloroform will put this man to sleep, 
while the same quantity will set another man 
wild. The difference is found in the difference 
of organic susceptibility. Hence some men may 
drink and not become confirmed in habits of in- 
ebriation, because of the peculiarity of their 
organism. That they are not drunkards is no cre- 
dit to them ; it is to be placed to the credit of the 
Creator, for that which does not intoxicate them 
would and does intoxicate others. Therefore, no 
argument in favor of the free use of Hquors can 
be drawn from those men who, in despite, as it 
were, of nature, thus practise moderate drinking 
through a long series of years. Let us, therefore, 
remove this old sophistry, and make this point 



Temperance a Duty and a Pleasure, 105 

plain and emphatic, and give the credit to God 
and not to man. 

With these concessions freely admitted, let us 
now pass to consider the question : Were the 
better classes of society to discontinue the mode- 
rate use of wines and liquors, would that tend to 
diminish the habit and evils of intemperance ? 
If so, how ? 

1. It would be the expression of apprehension 
that confirmed inebriety might follow. It would 
be the tocsin of alarm. It would imply dangei 
ahead. It would be the reassertion of two facts, 
viz., that all confirmed drunkards were once 
moderate drinkers, and that all moderate drink- 
ers may become confirmed inebriates. Hence 
comes the law that absolute safety isS in total 
abstinence. There is safety in that for all. This 
would be an example and a warning. 

2. It would render the trade in wines and 
liquors, including the manufacture and sale — 
wholesale and retail — of the same, less profitable, 
and lead to its abandonment. I suppose it ^s true 
that the larger profits of the trade are derived 
from the sale of such wines and liquors as are 
used by the higher classes of society ; tnat the 
proprietors of our splendid saloons and hotel bar- 
rooms derive a larger profit from fancy drinks 
than from " whiskey straight." The logical effect 
of the discontinuance of the use of such drinks 
by such persons would be the closing up of nine- 
lenths of all our fancy saloons and hotel bar- 



to6 Self- Denial for the Promotion of 

rooms. This, in turn, would affect the whole- 
sale trade, and this the manufacturer ; and cut- 
ting off the supply of drunkards from the ranks 
of moderate drinkers and rendering the article of 
intoxication itself scarce, the end would be 
gained, and intemperance would soon cease to 
exist. Many a man engages in the wholesale and 
retail busines of selling liquor not so much from 
the love of liquor as from his cupidity. And 
just as soon as these citizens find that their 
business has ceased to be profitable, they will 
abandon it and go into something else. If these 
are facts, are we not justified in the assertion that 
a grave responsibility for the evils of intemper- 
ance rests upon the moderate drinker and upon 
those who indulge in fancy drinks ? 

3. Were the higher classes of society to dis- 
continue the moderate use of wines and liquors, 
the effect would be to render the custom of 
drinking unfashionable. Fashion is only another 
term for public sentiment. Acknowledged evils 
are tolerated by common consent. Public sen- 
timent is the energy of law. There were laws 
against duelling prior to the duel between 
Hamilton and Burr, but for lack of public senti- 
ment they were dead. The death of Hamilton, 
however, changed the public sentiment, and the 
duellist is now considered a barbarian. Fashion 
is at once a master and a monster: a master in 
the supremacy of power, a monster in the cruel- 
ties inflicted upon mankind. What and how we 



Temperance a Duty and a Pleasure. 107 

eat, our style of dress, the construction of our 
dwellings, our modes of travel, are all governed 
hj fashion. Fashions rarely come up. They 
almost always go down, till, in the last modified 
form, they touch the bottom of society. Extra- 
vagance in the rich begets extravagance in the 
poor. Many a clerk has ended his days in the 
penitentiary because he lived beyond his means. 
Many a daughter has forsaken the God of her 
youth, and gone with her whose ways take hold 
on death, because she coveted the pleasures of 
dress. What we want, therefore, is to render 
the custam of drinking unfashionable, so that 
those in the lower grades of life will not think 
that they are out of the world if they do not 
imbibe from the intoxicating cup. For the lower 
classes of society have just reason to complaija 
that the custom has been set them in hig!k 
places. 

4. Then the plan I propose involves another 
thought It would iacrease the power to per- 
suade. -Example is the inspiration of language.. 
The life of Christ is of more value to the world 
than his teachmgs. Withoujb his lofty, symmetri- 
cal character; without his life of unparalleled 
purity and benevolence, his most wise and most 
beautiful lessons would be to mankind ^* as sound- 
ing brass and a tinkling cymbal." Here is a father 
on whose dinner-table the wine sparkles.; he seek^ 
to reform an inebriated son. He pleads, he argues, 
h^ prays ; but all his arguments are paralyzed by 



/o8 Self-Denial for the Pro^notion of 

his own moderate drinking. " Physician, heal 

thyself," is the son's withering reply. The wise 
must educate the ignorant ; the strong must 
strengthen the weak ; and only the pure can save 
the guilty. *' What is good for the father is good 
for the son," is a satisfactory argument for the 
latter's use. The persuasive power of example 
is the greatest. The pledge, societies, asylums, 
and law are proper, but impotent without 
it 

But against this, our personal liberty may be 
urged as a valid objection. Personal liberty is a 
natural right, and the freedom to exercise it is 
one of the noblest achievements of the age. Each 
man has a right to himself; to the results of his 
mental and physical labors ; to eat and drink and 
rest; to pursue happiness. All this shou.M be 
conceded, and is. Yet there is not in all this 
universe absolute liberty. The highest form of 
personal liberty is bounded by the law of limita- 
tion. You can grow only so high. You can eat 
only so much. You can sleep only so long. Con- 
ceding this, may we not enquire whether there is 
not another law of limitation or a further limita- 
tion to this personal liberty — the law of* Chris- 
tian self-denial which has its formal expression in 
the Golden Rule, " Whatsoever ye would that men 
should do unto you, do ye even so to them: for 
this is the law and the prophets " ? And the same 
thought is expressed in those words of Paul to 
the Romans : " Let not your good be evil spoken 



Temperance a Duty and a Pleasure » 109 

of." Doubtless, too much is otten demanded of 
Christian men. The world is hawk-eyed. It is 
rigorously exacting. Yet it is better to suffer 
wrong than do wrong. There are many things 
innocent in themselves, but the true man prefers 
to sacrifice them — to deny himself of that which, 
though in itself innocent, may be abused by others, 
and innocent pleasures be converted into criminal 
passions. You and I have a fast horse ; made for fleet 
ness ; made by the Almighty — and the Almighty 
only can make a fast horse. We are on the same 
road, and try their speed, whatever it may be — 2.50 
or 2.20. There is nothing wrong in that per se. 
Those horses were made by the Creator for fleet- 
ness, and what is more delightful than to ride be- 
hind that noble creature ? But young men ob- 
serve us on the road ; they propose to try their 
fast horses, and, in addition to the trial, bet a hun- 
dred dollars on the result. They transfer their 
habits from the road to the race-course, and we 
see before them the gambler's end. Self-denial, 
philanthropy, magnanimity, should induce us to 
forego our pleasure for the good of the others. 
The same thing is true in regard to games of 
chance. There is nothing wrong per se in our 
playing a game of cards. But the habit may be- 
come an example to others who will abuse it. 
Doubtless you and I could behold some tragedian 
or comedian on the stage in some of the grand 
creations of the Bard of Avon, and there would 
be no sin in it per se, for God made Shakespeare 



1 10 Self -Denial for the Promotion of 

and gave him his marvellous genius ; and may 
not the day come when men may behold these 
things without deleterious results ? But take 
the associations of the drama ; the associations of 
those connected with it, and their influence upon 
society, and the good man foregoes the pleasure 
that he may save others from consequences that 
may be traced to the drama. It is a higher plea- 
sure to know that by our self-denial we have saved 
others from sin and death than to enjoy the plea- 
sures of which we have denied ourselves. Per- 
haps the noblest question a man can put to him- 
self is, " How may I suffer and thereby save 
others?** and he only has reached the true hu- 
manity who can answer that question by deeds 
of philanthropy and self-sacrifice. 

II. But let us look at the motives which should 
induce you to this self-denial. Let us remember 
that nothing great or good is accomplished in any 
department of life without the practice of self 
denial. Enter yon college, where are two young 
men of equal endowments and equal promise. 
Impatient of college restraint, preferring the 
song, the dance, the race, one lags in his studies, 
and with difficulty receives his diploma. The 
other is rarely seen where wit sparkles, beauty 
glows, or fashion shmes. Pale, thoughtful, studi- 
ous, his clear eye is dreamy ; visions of the future 
rise up before him. Charmed with the /an- 
guages, ne hopes one day to speak in other 



'temperance a Duty and a Pleasure, t t i 

tongues, in which great men speak, in which 
great thoughts are found ; 6r before him are long 
tables of figures, arid he is now -competing witii 
the older mathema;ticians for the prize of honni 
"Or, like Bacon, he lias marked out for himself a 
tiew course of scientific investigation. This is the 
'clifference between Bonaparte and Washington ; 
between Frederick the Great and John Howard ; 
between Chesterfield and Sir Phillip Sldne3^ Our 
forefathers were British freemen. They could 
liave lived in comparative ease and freedom, but 
they preferred to deny themselves wealth and 
'ease that they might achieve for us a better 
'•civilization. 

The Son of G'od enjoyed a glory with the 
Father "before the world was. Enthroned in glory, 
worshipped by angels, the Ruler of the universe, 
lie miglit have remained amid the beatitudes oi 
Paradise, But he laid aside his crown ; he with- 
drew from the society of angels; he came to 
earth ''a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief," to save a lost world. " For ye know the 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he 
was rich, yet, for your sakes, he became poor, 
that ye through his poverty might be rich " 
(.2 Cor, viii. g). 

Take the whole history of the world fn.m 
Adam to this day, and whatever has been attained 
that is beautiful in art, beneficent in science, salu- 
tary in law, noble in charity, God-like in religion, 
has been achieved by self-denial. Is the sparkling 



112 Self-Denial for the Promotton of 

wine so sweet and the animating draught so fas- 
cinating that you cannot abandon them to save 
millions from the drunkard's woes? You should 
be prompted to this duty of self-denial by the 
safety of yourself and your family. Some of you 
may drink moderately through a long series of 
years and not become confirmed inebriates. You 
may be exceptional cases, but from your ranks 
will go the majorities to swell the vast army of 
drunkards. 

The great massacre in Damascus, in i860, in 
which hundreds were slain and millions of pro- 
perty destroyed, had its origin in the quarrel of 
two school-boys, one a Mohammedan, the other a 
Christian. The great fire which a few years since 
reduced to ashes the finest portion of Portland, 
had its origin in the careless discharge of a fire- 
cracker thrown from the hand of a boy. Total 
abstinence is the only safety of some — the sure 
safety of all. Every career of crime had its 
starting-point in some small offence, and then the 
career widened and lengthened like the Missis- 
sippi. Every drunkard can retrace his life of sin 
and shame back to THE first GLASS. 

According to Grecian mythology, Jupiter com- 
manded Vulcan to make a beautiful woman, who 
was dressed by Minerva, adorned with charms by 
Venus, and endowed with a deceitful mind by 
Mercury. In her hand she held a casket, beauti- 
ful without, but within were all the miseries of 
mankind. When admitted among men she opened 



Temperance a Duty and a Pleasure, 1 1 3 

that fatal box, and forthwith stalked abroad, by 
day as well as by night, all the maladies and woes 
which now curse the human race. The first glass 
is Pandora's casket, beautiful to look upon, but 
within are health in ruins, hopes destroyed, affec- 
tions crushed, prayer silenced, grief sitting on 
the vacant seats of paternal care, of filial piety, 
of brotherly love, of maternal devotion ; crimes 
of every name and hue, from broken vows to 
ghastly murders ; home deserted ; prisons whose 
horrid doors open inward ; poverty and vice, twin 
companions ; shattered forms, tormented souls, a 
cheerless grave, a burning hell, a dishonored life, 
an offended God. 

Where is woe? where is sorrow? where are 
contentions ? where are babblings ? where are 
wounds without cause ? where is redness o^ eyes ? 
In the FIRST GLASS ! O parents ! O children ! 
touch not the first glass ! 

Be induced to this self-denial by the happiness 
which will accrue thereby io society at large. 
We shall infer the happiness by contemplating 
the misery. Shall we call to our aid the sublime 
science of numbers in forming our estimate of 
this misery ^ Statisticians, whose learning and 
research command our confidence inform us that 
in the United States there are not less than 
133,000 places licensed to sell intoxicating liquors, 
employing 390,000 persons. And if tA this num- 
ber we add those engaged in the manufacture and 
wholesale traffic, the total number will reach 



114 Self-Denial for the Promotion of 

570,oof; persons, of one man to every 75 inhabi 
tants. But the whole number of clergymen and 
teachers in our land engaged in the benevolent 
work of religion and education is only 150,000, 01 
about one-fourth the above number. It is esti 
mated that the total cost of intoxicating liquors 
used each year in our country is $700,000,000, to 
which must be added $40,000,000 for criminals, 
while the entire clergy of the country does not 
cost $30,000,000. It is estimated that every year 
intemperance sends to prison 100,000 persons, 
reduces 200,000 children to worse than orphanage, 
adds 600,000 to the long list of drunkards, and 
sends 60,000 citizens to premature graves. It is 
also estimated that while fewer women drink than 
men, yet a larger proportion of those who do 
drink become habitual drunkards. In New York, 
within the last ten years, out of 133,000 persons 
arrested for intoxication, 66,000 were women! 
Alas for a woman drunkard ! How our thoughts 
are roused to pity and our words to complain 
when we think what might have been the result 
to us if our mother, our wife, our daughter, our 
sister had gone in the paths of intoxication! 
Could I speak to women high in social position 
to-day, and speak plainly, I would speak with 
earnest emphasis. To me it is absolutely appal- 
ling as 1 mingle in society, here and elsewhere, to 
see with what readiness those who are worthily 
called ladies — called so from their virtue, their 
intelligence, their education, their acknowledged 



Temperance a Duty and a Pleasure, 1 1 5 

refinement — drink the sparkling champagne when 
" it stirreth itself in the cup." 

O women ! will you not lift your hands to hea- 
ven to-day, and swear that never in the future 
shall the sparkling wine touch your lips ; never 
again shall your example be against total absti- 
nence ? 

Intemperance is the scourge of the world. 
There is no evil written in the long catalogue of 
moral and political woes attended with more 
harm to individuals or to society than inebriation. 
Profanity, larceny, lying, murder, are the offspring 
of intemperance. To substantiate this no elabo- 
rate argument is necessary ; for the records of 
our penitentiaries, the inscription on the solitary 
prison wall written by the pen of time and the 
ink of tears, and the pauper's grave, are all proofs 
in support of the allegation. O inebriation ! 
thou habit of folly, thou hast dimmed the brilliant 
genius of the legislator, philosopher, and orator, 
sealed the mouth of heaven-commissioned am- 
bassadors, torn the royal diadem from the mon- 
arch's brow, and robbed the chieftain of his hard- 
won laurels. 

But it would »be more tolerable if the evils 
resulting from this pernicious habit were confmed 
to the drunkard himself. Yet it is not so ; for the 
lovely and intelligent women of our land are the 
victims of his misery. They drink in secret the 
cup of sorrow to its dregs • and, while we com- 
miserate the condition of the unhappy man, let us 



n6 Self-Denial for the Promotion of 

lift the curtain and behold the disconsolate, weep- 
ing, heart-broken wife. Perhaps he won her in 
the morning of life, when the bloom of youth, 
health, and sobriety glowed upon his cheek, and 
the light of genius animated his bewitching coun- 
tenance. They went to the altar with hearts of 
tenderness and love. Heaven smiled upon the 
union. The happiness of her coming years lay 
like an ocean of pearls and diamonds in the em- 
brace of the future. Hope sat, like a bird of aus- 
picious omen, high in the green leaves of fancy, 
and poured into her bosom the sweet harmon)^ of 
a terrestrial elysium. But her husband, in an un- 
suspected hour, forgets his bridal pledge. The 
sparkling bowl of friendship steals upon the 
hours of domestic enjoyment ; his noble nature 
yields to the bright eyes of the charmer; and, 
alas, he becomes, step by step, a daily drunkard. 
What scenes follow ? Night after night finds him 
in the midst of his family brimful with spirits 
and passions ; his wife meets him with a trembling 
hand, an aching heart, and a tearful eye ; his dear 
children retreat from corner to corner as if an 
evil spirit had made its appearance ; and even his 
faithful dog skulks away with the growl of anti- 
cipated blows. The little homestead becomes 
the theatre of family broils and angry blows, and 
neither his wife nor his children are secure from 
the fury of his drunken madness. Where the 
sacred anthem should bear aloft the sweet music 
of the family, the wild song of the drunkard is 



Temperance a Duty and a Pleasure, 1 1 7 

chanted to the impious orgies of vice. Where tne 
grateful breath of prayer like incense should waft 
to heaven their wants and woes, he pours forth a 
torrent of curses upon their devoted heads. 
Where the holy Bible should spread its banquet 
of wisdom and love, he opens the tablets of a 
heart on which are written the history of wretch- 
edness and woe. 

Who does not shudder at this mournful pic- 
ture of desolation and ruin ? But mark the 
condition of his wife ; the cries of her half-clad, 
starving children ring in her ears daily, and the 
hectic flush of premature death dries up her 
briny tears as they trickle down her cheeks ; her 
heart is a little city of ruins — hope, pride, fortune, 
and happmess, all have departed ; and even while 
she binds up his wounds, his gross ingratitude 
sends keenest pangs to her heart. While she 
sheds tears of sympathy over his wayward con- 
duct, his cruel treatment freezes them into ice- 
drops before they reach his bosom. While she 
would entwine her affections around him as the 
virgin bowers enfolds tne sturdy oak, his swelling 
anger and feverish passions snap the gentle cords 
and spurn her proffered tenderness. But still the 
doting wife grasps the hand that withers her 
hopes of earthly happiness, and leans tenderly 
upon that cheek that consumes the sweetness of 
her youth, her health, her beauty. But why are 
these things so? Why this self-ruin and self- 
degradation ? Why this prodigality and penury } 



1 1 8 Self -Denial for the Promotion of 

Why this personal and domestic suffering and 
misery ? I answer these interrogations calmly. 
Intemperance is supported and perpetuated by 
fashion and law. Fashion — criminal, nefarious, 
diabolical fashion — sanctions with its unknown 
power moderate drinking-. In this cold world 
whatever is fashionable is right. No matter how 
injurious to healt-h, corrupting to morals, or mo- 
lesting to society the practice may be, if it is only 
fashionable, it is all right. It is fashionable to 
drink that social glass ; hence, people think they 
must drink. But let the world remember that in 
our splendid saloons and fashionable circles the in- 
ebriate's career begins, and that Bacchus manu- 
factures drunkards out of moderate drink- 
ers. 

This is but a mere outline of the picture of the 
great scourge, which picture, in the fulness of 
awful detail, God alone can paint. What, then, 
is the logical, philosophical conclusion, founded 
on truth and common sense? It is this: That the 
race can be saved from these woes by the self- 
denial of the higher classes of society ; it is, that 
total abstinence is the safety of all; that, whilst 
some who moderately drink may escape inebriety, 
yet total abstinence will be the safeguard, not 
only ot them, but the safeguard of all. Then, in 
sentiment with that glorious man, St. Paul, let us 
say, " If wine make my brother to offend, I will 
drink no wine while the world standeth." Doing 
this, you may be imitators of him who, though 



temperance a Duty and a Pleasure. ug 

he was rich, became poor, that we through his 
poverty mig-ht be made rich. 

It awaits 3^our decision. Recall the self-denial 
of Christ for the benefit of mankind, then folio 5*^ 
his example. 



The Church and Temperance. 

BY JOHN W. MEARS, D.D. 

T-axt—Ecciestasies i. 15 ; Revelation xxi. 5. 

**That which is crooked cannot be made straight': and that which is want' 
mg cannot be numbered." 

" And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And 
he said unto me, Write : for these words are true and faithful." 

FOR a period very closely corresponding with 
that of the division of the Presbyterian 
Church in America, the struggle against intempe- 
rance upon the principle of total abstinence has 
been going forward. It was at Saratoga, in 1836, 
that the American Temperance Union took its 
stand upon that principle, and from that date we 
count the more than thirty years' war for nation- 
al, social, legal, and ecclesiastical reform in the 
use of intoxicating drinks. In this era of church re- 
union, reconstruction, and revision, when the hum- 
ble enquiry, *' Lord, what wilt thou have me do ? " 
is rising with fresh interest and earnestness from 
millions of reconsecrated souls, it seems proper to 
notice the coincidence of dates, and to glance at 
the relation of the Temperance cause to the church, 
and to enquire what may be our duty in this par- 
ticular juncture, as officers and members of a 
branch of Christ's church, always among the most 



1 12 The Church and Temperance, 

influential, but now assuming a position of emi- 
nence and responsibility before the public more 
exalted than ever. Besides, tke fluctuations m the 
history of the Temperance reformation have been 
so great and so far from encouraging that ji.st at 
this time there has arisen, in the minds of the great 
mass of persons favorable to the reform, the convic- 
tion that permanent success and a final triumph of 
its principles must be looked for from the active 
co-operation of the church of Christ alone. Out 
side organizations, Washingtonian movements, 
pledges, public meetings, restrictive legislation, 
the example of public men, the distribution of an 
appropriate literature, secret beneficial societies, 
have had their place, and have done their work 
with greater or less efficiency, and most of them 
still remain among the accredited agencies of the 
reform. But none of them, nor all of them toge- 
ther, have been found able, after a generation 
of experiment, to achieve the work for which they 
were put in operation. More than ten years ago. 
Temperance men acknowledged themselves to have 
suffered a '* Waterloo defeat," and since the time 
of that utterance, especially during the war, the 
state of things became even worse ; and now, al- 
though we have unquestionably made up some of 
the lost ground, have recovered from the panic, 
which we now see to have been rather discredita- 
ble, have infused financial strength into our nation- 
al publishing operations, and are resuming our 
efforts at thorough legislative reform, and have 
Becured the cordial and zealous co-operation or 



The Church and Temperance* 123 

silent example of men in the highest political and 
military positions in the state and nation ; yet the 
evil of intemperance is still so monstrous and so 
rampant; the reaction from the earlier advances 
of the cause is still so marked even in respect- 
able societ}^ ; the work to be done is so vast, that 
the minds of men are turning", In a kind of despair^ 
in this direction for means of successfully carrying 
on the Temperance reform. The appeal is made 
with unusual emphasis to the church. More 
plainly than ever, it is felt that the fate of the Tem- 
perance reform is to be decided here. The great 
advocates of the movement knock at her doors, and 
wait in her courts to learn the doom of their 
cause. 

"• That which is crOoked cannot be made 
straight : that which is wanting cannot be number- 
ed." Coarse animal appetite, backed by covetous- 
nessand played upon by gambling politicians, is too 
strong for them. They turn to that kingdom whrch 
is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace 
a^d joy in the Holy Ghost ; they look to the society 
founded by the world's Redeemer, who maketh all 
things new ; they recognize in the church those 
spritual and supernatural powers, by the side of 
which their pledges and orders and degrees and 
mysteries are the mere clap-trap of nature's jour 
neymen, nine hundred and ninety-nine of whom 
cannot make or remake a man. 

Hon. Henry Wilson, in a recent newspaper 
article, speaking of the importance of enlisting the 
American per pie more generally in the Temper- 



124 The Church and Temperance, 

ance cause, says : '^ Can it be done ? If so, how ? 
In my judgment, there is but one way in which 
this great result can be reached. The church 
MUST TAKE UP THE MATTER. It must become one 
of the living issues of the moral warfare in which 
it is engaged." 

We believe this appeal is fairly taken. We be- 
lieve the specific work and objects of the Temper- 
ance reform may be reckoned as among the legi- 
timate concerns of the church in our day. We 
believe that there is a responsibility resting upon 
the church for the success of the Temperance cause 
which has been but partially met. We believe 
that tne railure in carrying any great moral reform 
points naturally to the great instrumentality for 
man's good on the earth ; and the appeal of men in 
despair of other means to the church is not more 
a compliment than a serious charge of dereliction 
m the actual performance of its duty ; and while 
it is clear that in every stage of the Temperance 
movement the ministry, members, and newspaper 
organs of the church have been its most efficient 
allies, and that at all times the cause has depended 
upon these for whatever measure of success it has 
enjoyed, nevertheless, we believe the church is 
disposed at this time to reconsider the whole 
question; to take enlarged views of her own re- 
sponsibilities ; to acknowledge frankly her short- 
comings; to gird herself anew for the work, and 
thus to respond to the appeal in this critical period 
of the cause. 

In arguing, therefore, that the church should 



The Church and Temperance, I25 

maintain and advance upon her present position 
on Temperance, reckoning it more positively 
among the objects of her stated and regular activi- 
ty, and not contenting herself with judicial deliv- 
erances or with occasional sermons, I maintain : 

First. That the ground of the Temperance re- 
form is that of the plain requirements of Scripture, 
It is not based upon results of the highest merely 
human wisdom. Its roots are not in the vague 
aspirations of the unrenewed heart. It does not 
belong to the brood of ideas generated in the 
brains of mere philosophers and social philanthro- 
pists, such as communism, abolition of capital 
punishment, and woman suffrage. It is a thorough- 
ly Christian and Scriptural idea. The ground 
has long ago been cleared of misapprehension in 
the view of intelligent believers. We do not rest 
the Tem.perance reform on such arguments as are 
ascribed to it by one of the highest literary author- 
ities in the country (" Appleton's Cyclopedia " ) : 
** The demand for prohibition, according to its 
advocates, logically rests on the assumption that 
alcohol is essentially poison — precisely as arsenic, 
opium, and nicotine are poisons — that the differ- 
ence between wine' and brandy, beer and gin, is 
one of degree merely, not of kind, at least so far as 
poison is concerned. They also argue in support 
of their positions that a*lcohol is a product of vege- 
table decay and dissolution, and hence necessarily 
hurtful ; that there can be no temperate use of it 
as a beverage any more than there can be temper- 
ate theft, adultery, or murder ; that if much strong 



!26 The Church and Temperance, 

drink does great harm ; a little weak alcohol drink 
must do some harm ; and that there can be no 
temperate use of such beverages but their total 
disuse." 

That some temperance men regard these ex- 
treme positions as fundamental, we do not question. 
Nor do we intend to deny their correctness: we 
only express our strong doubt whether they can 
be maintained from the Word of God with such 
clearness as to put them among the axioms of 
Christian duty. The Christian church may not 
commit herself to them as established guides of 
her conduct. We cannot take the extreme posi- 
tion that the use of all intoxicating drinks as bev- 
erages would be, under all circumstances, and 
absolutely, a sin ; or that the Scripture anywhere 
absolutely condemns all such use of them as a sin, 
or anywhere enjoins total abstinence from intox- 
icating drinks as a duty. We do not hold it 
necessary even to prove that the Bible nowhere 
allows the use of strong drink as a beverage. We 
do not think it indispensable to show, as has not 
unfrequently been attempted, that the score of 
passages in the Bible which seem to approve of 
the use of wine do not approve of it. There is 
more or less of what we might call exegetical 
finesse in these interpretations. They may be cor- 
rect, but we cannot afford to put the whole stress 
of our cause upon them. Without doubt, the 
weight of the specific passages of Scripture on the 
subject is enormously on the side of total absti- 
nence. And a careful and scholary enquiry may 



The Church and Temperance, 127 

yet make it clear that " there is not a single passage 
in the Bible that contains an explicit approbation 
of intoxicating wine " (Ritchie : " Scripture Testi- 
mon\%" page 155). But there is no need of waiting 
for a final settlement of this point ; not a whit 
more than in getting a Scriptural position against 
slavery, polygamy, or the dancing and worldly 
amusements of modern society. 

The argument that touches the rock of duty and 
that remains immovable, whatever becomes of the 
others, is the grand and most Christian principle 
of self-sacrifice for the good of our neighbor, the 
law of Christian charity to the weak. It is Christ 
like condescension to man, to society, in a state of 
great moral necessity. Paul, the great casuist of 
the new dispensation, has announced the principle 
in the fourteenth of Romans : '' It is good neither 
to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything where- 
by thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or made 
weak ;" and again, in i Cor. viii. : '* If meat make 
my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the 
world standeth, lest I make my brother to 
off'end." 

The application of this rule to the evil of intem- 
perance is perfectly easy nd universal. Those 
who question or deny every other position taken 
by temperance men, must feel the force of this. 
Alco'hol may or may not be poison. Any use of 
alcoholic drinks may or may not be sinful. But the 
enormous evils flowing from their use or misuse 
are among the everyday facts of our life. The 
weakness of the mass of men under the appetite for 



126 The Church and Temperance, 

strong drink is a settled physiological principle. 
No matter, according to Paul, how strong we feel 
ourselves to be, and no matter how silly and weak 
our brother may appear in our eyes, we are bound 
for example's sake to deny ourselves of meat as 
well as drink, ^' while the world standeth," in 
order to avoid all responsibility for the fall and de- 
struction of our brother, and to promote his wel- 
fare as a moral and spiritual being. 

In the case mentioned by Paul, the offence arises 
from a morbid imagination and an oversensitive 
conscience. Eating meat offered to idols was al- 
together an artificial sin. But lest a weak brother 
should be led even into such a sin, Paul enjoined 
abstinence from the practice of eating meat offered 
to idols on the part of those who, like himself, knew 
that an idol is nothing in the world. But here is 
danger of a sinful excess of the worst sort. We 
are asked to practise and proclaim the Pauline 
principle of total abstinence, not to save a brother, 
as he proposed, from the evil results of a foible, but 
to rescue him from his downward path to a dis- 
honored life, a grave of infamy, and a dreadful hell ; 
to avert the doom of drunkenness from a rising 
generation ; to bind up innumerable wounds and 
bruises and putrefying sores of the body politic, 
and to uphold the dominion of reason and of truth 
in the church and the world. The Bible, indeed, 
contains no explicit rule of total abstinence, simply 
because its law of charity is far wider than that 
laid down by the advocates of temperance alone. 
We must abstain from everything that can give 



The Church and Temperance, 129 

serious offence. We must array the whole force of 
our example in the support of our weak and tempt- 
ed brother ; we must enter upon a life-long course 
of self-denial, if necessary to his substantial inter- 
ests. Do not jeopardize the souls for whom Christ 
died for the sake of a little tickling of the palate 
or glow of the nerves. If we are not, in so many 
words, commanded to organize total abstinence 
societies and to establish the principle of total ab- 
stinence in social and church life, we certainly have 
a Scriptural charter covering the whole ground 
on which such movements stand. And we may 
rightly hold that the total abstinence movement 
of modern times is as truly a legitimate outgrowth 
of Christianity as the movement for the abolition 
of slavery, beginning with Clarkson and Wilber- 
force and ending in the proclamation of the Fif- 
teenth Amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States, although no such phrase as " human 
rights " is found from one end to the other of the 
Bible. 

There is an objection to the direct and active 
interest of the church, as such, in the temperance 
movement, which still has weight with not a few. 
It is supposed to conflict with the spiritual character 
and object of the church. We aim, it is argued, 
at the conversion of men; at the implanting of a 
wholly new principle of living through the power 
of the Holy Spirit. The Temperance reform, and, 
indeed, moral reform in general, treats only of spe- 
cific sins, which are but symptoms of the real ma- 
lady. Why distract the church in dealing with 



i^o The Church and Temperance, 

the ma ady itself, by your quackery about the symp- 
toms ? Do you not see that, if you once truly con- 
vert ths man, you have morally reformed him, and 
that conversion is the oni}' real and lasting moral 
reform after all ? 

We answer, that while the church on earth, in 
its supreme and final objects, is certainly spiritual 
in ilo character, it is not and cannot be a pure spir- 
itual institution. It is partly human, partly divine. 
It is for man as he is, mind and body, belonging to 
time and to eternity. It is adapted to the facts of 
man's condition as a sinner, and as suffering for 
his sins. It contemplates sin as an evil and a curse 
as well as a crime. It pours out its Godlike sym- 
pathies and blessings on the suffering men and 
societies whomi it does not specifically labor to 
convert. Surely it is safe for the chr.rch to mould 
its policy in accordance with tht. example of its 
divine Master. And how larger, a part of his re- 
corded activity was directed to alleviating the 
woes of mankind ! How he confronted sin as an 
evil with the majesty of his miracle-working power, 
often without even so much as hinting at his high- 
er calling as the physician of the soul. And the 
prophetic description of the last judgment, with 
the Son of Man sitting on the throne of his glory, 
shows in a remarkable manner how closely he will 
hold his people accountable for a failure to carry 
out his own beneficent policy to a suffering world 
And the church has never failed to re-cognize her 
duty of charity to the poor and suflering. It has 
not been held to be enough even that her elders 



The Church and lemperance, 131 

and deacons should dispense the charitable contri- 
butions of the members. Organizations must be 
formed within and about the churches more effe :t- 
ually to meet these specific wants, and no one 
has found fault with them as inconsistent with the 
spiritual aims or internal completeness and suKi- 
ciency of the church for all its legitimate work. 

What is the difference in principle between 
making a sewing society for the poor a part of 
the regular work of the church and establishing 
a weekly church Temperance meeting ? If either 
of the two is shallow and remote from the pro- 
found idea of the church, it must be the effort for 
the relief of the poor ; for the Temperance move- 
-nent strikes at the root of three-fourths of the 
pv^verty to which your Dorcas societies are but 
salves and poultices that must be renewed every 
season at least. In fact, direct relief is the least 
satisfactory of ail charity to the poor. It is often 
waste and mischief combined — money worse than 
throw^n away. The true relief to an individual 
and a neighborhood is to raise their character, to 
remove their bad habits, to put them in the way 
oi valuing and diligently using their opportunities 
of gaining a living. And almost the highest man- 
ifestation of the benevolent spirit of the Master 
towards the poor which the church in our day 
can give is to engage in active efforts to promote 
the Temperance reform. 

But it is asked, Why should the chUrch make a 
distinction among the evils and sins of the times ? 
Are there not others abroad in the land equally 



132 The Church and Temperanct, 

demanding her zeal ? Are not corruption End fraud 
practised on a gigantic scale, making a mockery 
of legislation, and converting business of almost 
every kind into mere gambling? Are they not 
" poisoning the very fountains of business morals in 
the metropolis of our country ?" (Spalding's tract, 
"Rational Temperance"); and have not legisla- 
tors almost ceased to blush at the imputation of 
bribery, or to deem it longer necessary to hide the 
hand that receives the price of their influence ? 
We answer, that the sin and evil of fraud and cor- 
ruption are too clear to need special denunciation. 
They are against the plainest statutes ajad letter 
of the moral code. The position of the church 
in regard to them has never been doubtful. Her 
testimony is explicit and unwavering. There is 
no question of Christian expediency here. It is 
one of the radical and open violations of known 
fundamental law. Besides, the sin and its 
results, although enormous, are comparatively 
subtle ; they cannot easily be attacked by that 
class of personal efforts which we understand by 
moral reform. But intemperance is quickly fol- 
lowed by such a train of gross evils ; it is so de- 
structive of reason, so crippling to the right exer- 
cise of the faculties in the daily walk of life ; it so 
ravages the bodily system, shattering the nerves, 
draining the vital force, arresting the natural pro- 
cesses, and exposing the system to every form of 
disease and to premature and disgraceful death ; 
it so robs a man of the respect of himself and 
neighbors ; it so quickly hurls him into poverty 



The Church and Temperance. 133 

and disgrace ; it opens the pores of his moral 
system so widely to every kind of criminal soli- 
citation ; it gives him such a pre-eminence — almost 
a monopoly — of our police and criminal courts, 
prisons, gallows, poor-houses, and lunatic asylums ; 
it makes him such a vast charge upon our pockets 
in the shape of taxes ; it makes him the centre 
of such pestilent, Irw-defying, Sabbath-breaking 
traffic ; it bands hirj and his associates into such a 
powerful and dangurous element in politics, that it 
has become the curse of our time, the demon that is 
to be cast out of modern society. And the church, 
which sees her relations to bribery and fraud in 
the light of the eighth commandment, must see her 
duty towards intemperance in the light of the law 
of charity, which covers all the commandments in 
the Second Table of the law. In a word, it is the 
use of a beverage which narcotizes the moral sensi- 
bilities and the intellect, and which stimulates the 
sensual brute nature of man, which dislodges him, 
for the time being, from his position as made a 
little lower than the angels, which removes and 
defaces the image of God in his soul, and turns the 
temple of the Holy Ghost into a lodging place of 
demons ; it is this enemy put into the mouth, which 
steals away brain and heart alike, that we may 
well summon the church of our day to aid in 
overthrowing, by special means ana activities. 
We challenge every other specific form of vicious 
indulgence, or openly wrong practice, or accessible 
evil that afflicts the children of men, to match such 
a record as the following : ''The annual amount of 



134 ^^^^ Church and lemperance. 

fermented and distilled liquo. s used in the United 
States wouxd fill a canal four feet deep, fourteen 
feet wide, and one hundred and twenty miles long. 
The places where intoxicating drinks are made 
and sold in this country, if placed in direct lines, 
would make a street one hundred miles long. If 
all the victims of the rum traffic were gathered 
before our eyes, we should see a thousand funerals 
a week from their number. [Think of two-thirds 
of the city of Philadelphia furnishing one thou- 
sand funerals a week !] Placed in a procession five 
abreast, the drunkards of America would form an 
army one hundred miles long, with a suicide occur- 
ring in every mile. Every I^our in the night the 
heavens are lighted with the incendiary torch of 
the drunkard. Every hour in the day the earth is 
stained with the blood of drunken assassins. See 
the great American army of inebriates, more than 
half a million stronof, marchinof on to sure and 
swift destruction, filing off rapidly into the poor- 
houses and prisons and up to the scaffold, and yet 
the ranks are constantly recruited from the mode- 
rate drinkers ! Who can compute the fortunes 
squandered, the hopes crushed, the hearts broken, 
the homes made desolate by drunkenness ?" 

If, again, it be objected that total abstinence and 
prohibition are extreme measures ; that the tem- 
perance of the Bible is moderation, not abstention ; 
that the misuse of an object is no good ground for 
setting it aside altogether ; that the Christian is 
one who of all others has a right to rational enjoy- 
ment, and may expect divine aid in the moderate 



The Church and Temperance, 135 

use of every good ; in fine, that true reform, by 
divine grace, should make a man capable of manly 
self-control, and that little or nothing is grained tor 
the character by abstaining from that which a man 
ought rather to be able to use in moderation, we 
can only answer by pointing to facts. Moderation 
has been tried long ago and found wanting. The 
fascination of strong drink is too great; the physi- 
ological effects of alcohol in creating a morbid 
thirst and craving, furious and insatiable as a wild 
Deast, are too well ascertained. Whatever may 
have been the case in Bible lands and eras, what- 
ever may be the case in other countries to-day, in 
America the downward way of the drinker from 
moderation to excess is too steep and slippery to 
allow the trifling of moderate indulgence. It is a 
whirlpool, which draws in swift and dreadful 
sweep from the outermost circle to the central 
abyss. The alcoholic drinks of our day are so far 
from being the genuine juice of the grape or the 
product of noble grains and fruits, that they might 
well have come from the caldron of Macbeth's 
witches. " Deacon Giles's Distillery" was a healthy- 
place, and the scene of an hone.*"., traffic, compared 
with the enormities of fraud, adulteration, and poi- 
soning now going on under the name of liquor j 
manufacture, even among the vineyards of Califor- 
nia and Ohio, as well as in cellars hidden und;r 
coffin warehouses in Brooklyn. A worse sort of 
devils than those which wrote '' Death ^nd Dam- 
nation " upon the drinks of I x\.j years ago, are 
employed in producing the horrid mixtures of 



136 The Church and Temperance. 

to-aay, which find their way to our sick-chambers 
and even spread their unwholesome fumes around 
our communion tables. Do not talk of moderation 
in the use of these vile compounds ; give us a 
tincture of arsenic at once, and call it by its right 
name of poison. Into the question of a moderate 
use of a possible pure alcoholic drink we cannot 
now enter. It is not before us. Such an article 
can hardly be said to have an ascertainable com- 
mercial exi'jtence. As well attempt to argue about 
the propriety of a Christian attending in modera- 
tion upon pure dramatic or operatic representa- 
tions ; such things do not exist in any degree suf- 
ficient to become a real element in a question of 
duty ; and if they did — if pure liquors and dramatic 
entertainments were an appreciable item of traffic 
and amusement, they are so sure to become the 
snare and ruin of others that, even granting our- 
selves to be entirely clear of peril, it is our Chris- 
tian duty, under the principle already referred to 
as laid down by Paul, to turn our backs upon 
theatre-going and wine-drinking, and to set the 
whole force of our example as total abstainers upon 
Christian principle against such perilous practices. 
And if the objector persists in saying : There are 
terrible excesses and frauds in business, there is 
endless corruption in politics and legislation, there 
are wrongs of the sorest kind in the famil}^ relation 
— following in the line of total abstinence and prohi- 
bition, we must abolish business, shut up oui legis- 
lative halls, and break up the family relations — we 
answer : The cases are in vvholly different spheres, 



The Church and Temper ancie. 137 

and not amenable to the same laws of procedure. 
Show us that we can dispense with business, law, 
and the family as readily as with a mere matter 
of indulgence ; put, if you can, the fundamental, 
indispensable arrangements of society upon the 
same footing with just one of the thousand ways 
in which we may gratify appetite, and which, if 
denied, would leave nine hundred and ninety-nine 
others open to us ; rank the use of intoxicating 
drinks as in dignity and importance comparable 
with business, with law, and with the family insti- 
tution, and you may well imagine that you have 
put a barrier in the way of church action for its 
abolition, and raised a great argument for the 
effort simply to correct its abuses. 

The argument is too idle, not to say wicked, to 
be put into shape. Yet we fear that there are 
those in and out of the church acting, or refusing 
to act, with a secret feeling that total abstinence 
and prohibition belong to revolutionary measures ; 
and perhaps in the ministry there are those who 
would hold back the church from the charitable 
Pauline policy of total abstinence, pretty much as 
they would hold it back from an assault on the 
social structure itself to rid it of its abuses. What 
an amazing, unwarrantable, unscriptural exagger- 
ation of the value of a single animal indulgence ! 
Man's capacity of enjoyment through strong drink 
is to be reckoned among the sacred privileges of 
his being which the church dare not invade ! 

Just the reverse of all this is the true view of the 
case. In issuing her rule of total abstinence, 



138 The Church and Tefnperance. 

the church would be acting in that well-recog- 
nized sphere of morals comprehended in keeping 
the body under. It is in this very region of 
appetite and indulgence that the Christian's first 
opportunities of self-denial and cross-bearing are 
fouad. So far from appetite and habit being pri- 
vileged, we know that they are the strongholds 
of self and of sin ; and if a monstrous, soul-de- 
stroying, and inevitable abuse is connected with 
some one appetite which can show no special rea- 
son for indulgence save the very universalit}^ that 
makes it so terrible, is not that just the very spot 
on which to lay the cross of absolute self-denial ? 
Against that should not the church feel specially 
summoned to direct its most energetic and radical 
opposition ? Do not Christian integrity and fidelity 
require the church to take the ground of total ab- 
stinence against so worldly, so selfish, so carnal, so 
perilous a course to one's self and others as the 
use of alcohohc drinks in any degree or form ? 
May she not arm herself with the words of inspi 
ration, and cry : " Look not thou upon the wine 
when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, 
when it moveth itself aright. At the last, it 
biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." 
To give a more practical turn to our discourse, 
let us for a few moments enquire what there is that 
the church can do, more particularly at the present 
juncture, to promote the Temperance reformation. 
Not forgetting the great service it has already 
rendered, by sermons and addresses from the pul- 
pit, and by the zeal of many of its members, and not 



The Church and Temperance. 139 

r<oubting for a moment that the degree to which 
the principle of total abstinence has gained a lodg- 
ment in the moral convictions of the community 
is almost wholly due to the church, we are 3^et 
brought to a point where we may be conscious of 
grave omissions and of more serious responsibilities 
than ever. We have done much. We have lifted 
the ponderous pillar from the ground. Christian 
and moral persons in the community, joining their 
efforts, have nearly straightened it upon its base. 
The ropes seem to be taut ; the last possible turn 
has been given to the windlass ; yet the column 
slants and bears heavily upon its supports. Some- 
thing remains to be done without which all our 
past efforts will be in vain. It. may be just the 
simple act of wetting the ropes that is needed, and 
with that slight additional strain the work may be 
completed ; the shaft may swing upright, and sink 
firmly into its place. Oh ! that the dews of the 
Holy Spirit may fall upon all our Temperance ma- 
chinery. It is for these that we wait. This will 
bring our work to a jo3^ful completion. With 
diffidence, and in the way of mere suggestion, we 
propose such measures as the following : 

I. Let the indiv^idual church constitute itself in 
some definite form a Temperance organization, so 
tha^ its whole character, influence, and activity 
shall be publicly upon the side of total abstinence. 
Let regular Temperance meetings be held under 
the guidance of ofBcers of the church, to which as 
much care shall be given as to any other weekly 
service. Let the reclamation of drunkards and 



40 The Church and Temperance, 

»he conversion of moderate drinkers, and the 
pledging of the community to a pohcj of total 
abstinence, be recognized as regular parts of 
church work. My hearers are aware that this 
plan has been thoroughly tested in som.e quarters 
of our church, particularly in the largest church 
connected with our body, and the largest Presby- 
terian church in America — that of Lafayette 
Avenue, Brooklyn, Rev. Dr. Cuyler, pastor. Of 
this, Dr. Cuyler writes in a recent newspaper 
article : 

*' In this church (Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn), 
we have had for several years a prosperous society, 
which is as fully recognized by the church as is its 
Sabbath-school. It numbers several hundreds of 
members, and affiliated with it is a Band of Hoj>« 
among the Sabbath-school children. It has a very 
simple constitution and by-laws, a zealous president 
and secretary, a treasurer, and a dozen members 
of an executive committee. The only title to 
membership is a signature of the total abstinence 
pledge. Public meetings are held during the fall 
and winter in the church, and attractive mtisic is 
always provided. Vast audiences have been ad- 
dressed by such men as Mr. Beech er, Newman 
Hall, Mr. Greeley, Gov. Buckingham, Dr. John 
Hall, William E. Dodge, Mr. Gough, Mr. Bar- 
num. Dr. Jewett, and many other powerful advo- 
cates of the reform. The expenses are met by a 
public collection at each meeting ; and, with the 
exception of Mr. Gough's lectures, ticke'ts are 
never sold at the door. At the close of each 



The Church and Temperance. 141 

meeting- the pledge is circulated. This is a vital 
feature in all effective Temperance work." 

One of the best-appointed churches in the Fourth 
Presbytery (Buttonwood Street, Dr. Shepherd's) 
has carried on a similar movement, with entire 
success, for eighteen months past, having secured 
a thousand signers to the pledge in the first 
twelve months, including some most affecting in- 
stances of reformation. At the meeting, April 8, 
although the pastor and the elder who manage 
the meetings were both, for the second time, absent 
from sickness, the lecture-room was full, the ser- 
vices were deeply interesting, and a dozen or more 
new signatures to the pledge were obtained. 
Other churches in our own and other denomi- 
nations are engaged in the work on the same 
general plan, and the results thus far warrant us 
in predicting the most extensive overturning that 
intemperance and the rum traffic have experienced 
since the early days of the Reformation, as a re- 
sult of the general adoption of such a line of policy 
by the great body of the Evangelical churches. 

2. The church might considerably clear it3 
position and strengthen its influence on the sub- 
ject, by banishing from the communion table the 
wretched article of commerce called wine ; and, 
indeed, by refusing to employ an3'thing but the 
pure unfermented juice of the grape at that most 
solemn service. It cannot be doubted that there 
are real perils to not a few persons connected 
with any use of alcoholic drinks, any and ever}^- 
where, including the Lord's table. Cases have 



142 The Church and Temperance. 

occurred, and are occurring, of reformed drink- 
ers, whose appetite still lingers like a chained but 
chafing wild beast, which the first taste may set 
free in all its original wildness, and who dare 
scarcely smell the cup as it passes. We cannot 
see how anj^ church, thoroughly pledged to the 
Temperance reform, can continue to subject them 
to this ordeal, or keep them away from the com- 
munion table. And if it is urged that our Saviour 
must have used a fermented article at the institu- 
tion of the Eucharist, we reply, that in using 
leavened bread, the modern church has for mere 
convenience departed from the precise form of 
the original ordinance ; why, then, for an object 
of far higher importance, refuse to make another 
change as little affecting the essence of the ob- 
servance as in the other case ? She does not hesi- 
tate to introduce leaven into the bread ; why may 
she not withdraw the same principle from the 
wine ? But, further, w^e think it quite unlikel}? 
that there was any fermented principle in eithei 
of the articles used by our Saviour at the Lord's 
Supper, That Supper is founded on the Jewish 
Passover, and the religious and rigid exclusion of 
ferment from the bread used on that occasion 
would naturally be extended to the wine, when 
that, in process of time, came to be added to the 
feast. It was, we should suppose, just as impro- 
per to use leaven, " the symbol of corruption," in 
drink, as in food. (Thayer.) At all events, the 
almost universal custom of modern Jews, as we 
read (Thayer), is to exclude fermented wine froin 



The Church and Temperance. 143 

their celebration of the Passover. And in the 
words of institution of the Lord's Supper it is 
noticeable that " wine " does not occur. The 
word '* cup " appears in its place, and our Saviour 
speaks not of drinking- wine, but of drinking the 
fruit of the vine, new in his Father's kingdom. 
The unfermented juice of the grape might well 
enough be designated by this general language. 
There is nothing, then, in the requirement of the 
original institution which would oblige the most 
rigid literalist to use fermented liquor at the 
Lord's Supper ; why, then, make that blessed or- 
dmance a possible occasion of stumbling to any, 
which ought to be one of the highest edification. 
In the strong language of Dr. Duffield : " Shall 
the cup of salvation become the cup of damnation 
— shall the cup of the Lord be made identical 
with that of devils ?" Until the church guards 
effectually against the possibility of such a pro* 
fanation, she fails in a most conspicuous manner 
to give her whole influence upon the side of Tem- 
perance. 

Finally, the whole church of Christ should be 
recognized as a solid pledged body against the 
use of all that intoxicates. She alone is the true 
immortal order for the redemption of man, soul 
and body. Why should she hold a lower moral 
position than the human orders around her ? She 
ought to point to man standing on the slippery 
places of appetite, the true path of entire self- 
denial. Crucified herself to the lusts of the flesh, 
purified from carnal and worldly compliance, with 



144 The Church and Temperance, 

the light of a saintly heroism on her brow, shii 

should stretch forth her hand to rescue the per- 
ishing. With a weary sense of the inefficiency of 
all merely human means of staying the misery, the 
woe, the wretchedness, the heaven-daring crime, 
and the frightful waste of intemperance, the 
orders and societies and public men and press of 
the land are turning to the church. With her is 
the residue of the Spirit. The dreadful hardness 
of men's hearts, the immeasurable power of their 
appetities, the cruel tyranny of custom, the insati- 
ableness and uscrupulousness of avarice have de- 
fied all lesser assaults. The monster is abroad 
again, with half-a-million yearly victims in our 
own country alone in his train. The accursed 
traffic is thriving, melting the hard earnings of 
the poor into a lava-stream of desolation. The 
foundations of our political life are honeycombed 
Xjy the sottishness of a large part of our wire- 
pulling and office-seeking politicians, who control 
the situation. Laws regulating the traffic are 
defied. Women are not merely claiming man's 
right to vote, but exercising what heretofore has 
been man's privilege — to drink to inebriety away 
from home. The very structure of society trem- 
bles. The church, God's chosen instrument foi 
man's regeneration, must take order to meet the 
emergency. She is come to the kingdom for 
such a time as this. Woe unto her if help arises 
from another quarter, and if the unbelieving 
world can strengthen i-tself in the opinion that 
man can get rid of his worst evils in spite of the 



The Church and Temperance, 145 

indifference or open opposition of a blind and 
conservative church ! On the contrary, we believe 
that all Christian grace will be multiplied ; all 
Christian life will be animated, joyful, and elfec- 
tive ; and all converting influences will be granted, 
in those churches which throw themselves with 
generous enthusiasm into this wide and needj 
field of Christian effort. 



The Active Pity of a Queen.^ 

(Reported for the :^ociety by William Anderson.) 



" for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people ? 
»r how can I endure to see the destruction of my people ?" — Esther 8 : 6. 

THE portion of God's Word to which, in con- 
nection with the subject of Christian tem- 
perance, I propose to call your attention this after- 
noon, is in the Book of Esther, the eighth chapter. 
We had better read from the fourth verse : ^' So 
Esther arose, and stood before the king, and said 
If it please the king, and if I have found favor in 
his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, 
and I be pleasing m his eyes, let it be written to 
reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of 
Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to 
destroy the Jews which are in all the king's pro- 
vinces : for how can 1 endure to see the evil that 
shall come unto my people? or how can I endure 
to vSee the destruction of my kindred ?" 

In conversing with a brother minister, in Can- 
ada, during the summer, upon the subject of 
preaching on temperance, he mentioned this text 
to me as one upon which he had preached It 

* This sermon is printed from a very admirable report, and not from tht 
preacher's manuscript, a circumstance which accounts for its colloquial stvle. 

J. H. 



148 The Active Pity of a Queen, 

has many times been present to my mmd since 
then, and I gladly take the opportunity of being 
invited by our National Society to bring this mat- 
ter before the people, to introduce the whole subject 
A\ connection with the sentiment of the verses that 
I have now read. 

One cannot preach from this Book of Esther 
without glancing at some of the peculiarities of 
the book itself. The w^ord-critics have been at 
work upon the book, applying to it the child's 
rest of a proper Sunday book, and, not finding the 
name of God in it, they have been ready to ques- 
tion its inspiration. The fact that there has been 
such an imputation as this is sufficient reason for 
our ascertaming what can be said upon the sub- 
ject. We should all of us know what is to be 
thought generally in relation to the authority of 
this book, because, although we may be a long 
way on this side of sheer unbelief, yet we may 
have such a feeble belief, accompanied by so many 
misgivings, that it shall have but little power in 
regulating our conduct ; and we could not have 
very much confidence in speaking or in hearing 
words about the authority of which there is some 
doubt in the mind at the beginning. 

When we look at this book in itself, it has certain 
peculiarities that attract the attention. It is. for ex- 
ample, a very faithful transcript of the general habit 
and character of Eastern rulers and of Persian 
courts ; and, in this respect, it is thoroughly borne 
out by all that we know regarding those kings and 
courts from other sources. In so far it Is confirmed 
IP ^xr^rir (\e.\7\\\ that it touchcs by profane histo 



The Active Pity of a Queen, 149 

nans, and although the lights wc have from his- 
tory on this period are comparatively dim and 
obscure, yet, so far as they do shed any light, it is 
of such a kind as to increase our confidence in the 
statements of this book. The style of the book is 
substantially the same as that which we have in 
Ezra, the Chronicles, and other books written 
about the time which it purports to have been 
written. It has just sufficient flavor of the lan- 
guage of the Chaldee and Persian to suggest to us 
that the book was prepared in the region of Persia. 
If it be alleged that it was written by Mordecai, a 
Jew, away from Judea, and in the service of a 
monarch elsewhere, that is only in harmony with 
God's method in relation to other books, Ezra, 
Nehemiah, and Daniel — who were all in the ser- 
vice of foreign kings — having been employed by 
the Holy Spirit to leave written memoirs of the 
times and of the events in which they themselves 
had some share. On all these grounds it is ob- 
vious enough that the presumption is in favor of 
this book being historically true. 

But we are not left to presumptions of this 
kind. Many of you are aware that there 
is a feast of Purim among the Hebrews, ob- 
served to this day, with very great care, over 
the world generally. Now, that feast, it is 
capable of proof, has been continuously ob- 
served from the time when this book purports to 
have been written. There is no authorization for 
that feast anywhere in the Bible but in the Book 
of Esther; and it seems to be impossible to ex- 
plain the origin and continuous history of that 



150 The Active Pity of a Queen, 

feast among the people except upon the assump- 
tion that this book is historically true. We are 
told of the hissing, and spitting, and other indi- 
cations of scorn, hatred, and contempt that are 
seen in some synagogues when this book is being 
read at the feast of Purim, showing clearly enough 
how real and historical the narrative is to them. 

But, then, a book might be trvie and yet 
not be inspired. And so we have to look 
at that part of the question also. We know 
explicitly what constituted the Hebrew canon 
in our Lord's time, and he accepted that He- 
brew canon as the Scriptures. He had occa- 
sion to find fault with the Hebrew people upon 
many a score, but he never did blame them as un- 
faithful custodians of the writings God had placed 
m their hands. We know they held this book in 
such high esteem that they placed it by the law ; 
and there was a proverb among them that there 
might come a time when all the books would be 
lost but the law and the book of Esther. Now, if 
he put his seal upon it and endorsed it, we are 
constrained to receive it in precisely the same way 
as we receive other portions of the Old Testament 
record, as given us by the inspiration of God, and 
profitable for doctrine, correction, and instruction 
in righteousness, that the man of God might be 
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good 
work. 

But if the name of God be not in the book 
— a circumstance which perhaps might be ac- 
counted for by the consideration that it was pos- 
sibly written for the benefit of people outside of 



The Active Pity of a Queen, 151 

the Jewish kingdom, and that, therefore, it was 
fhought wise to leave the being and attributes of 
the God of Israel rather to the inference of intel- 
ligent men than to explicit statement — it is im- 
possible for any candid reader to deny that the 
hand of God is in the providences it records. 
It is a series of providential wonders from be- 
ginning to end ; and I am not surprised that Dr. 
Carson, one of the ablest divines of the Baptist 
or any other church, when he wanted to write 
something about the particular providence of God, 
selected this Book of Esther to be the subject of 
commentary, statement and illustration at once 
of the truth he wished to present. It is strange 
enough that Vashti, by an assertion of her wo- 
manly independence, should have been driven 
from the throne ; but it is stranger still that Es- 
ther, a young Jewish captive maiden, not much 
above the rank of a slave in the country, should 
have been raised to the place thus vacated ; not, 
perhaps, to the place of first wife and equal, but to 
a place dignified by the name of queen. The won 
der grows when we find that her cousin Mordecai 
becomes so implicated in her history and in the 
history of the king, whose wife she has become, 
that he should be the detecter of the plot against 
the king's life ; that he should be the means of 
saving the king's life from the conspirator: that 
he should be in such a relation to the queen as to 
be able to communicate freely with her when the 
time of danger came ; that he should be, at the 
same time, the occasion of the scheme for the 
complete destruction of the Jewish people, i^ll 



152 The Active Pity of a Queen. 

these things, surely, are matters of very great 
surprise. Then consider how many things have 
to combine in order to bring about the result. 
Had not the king been awake on one particular 
night ; had not the reader turned to one particu- 
lar portion of the Medo-Persian record ; had not 
attention been called at the right time to Morde- 
cai ; had not Esther been in a position to influence 
the king — any one of these things being wanting 
must have affected the great result. I admit that 
one combination of these things might be a coin- 
cidence ; but I submit, brethren, that here is an 
accumulation of coincidences which it is impos- 
sible to explain upon any other theory than that 
the hand of God is here. 1 would just as soon, 
by the laws of my own mind, believe that one of 
our ocean-going steamers had made itself and 
furnished itself for sea by a fortuitous concurrence 
of atoms, by an accidental coherence of all the 
parts that compose it, as to believe that the events 
that are recorded in this book have happened in 
any other way than by the designing, controlling, 
and infinite Mind that worketh all things accord- 
ing to the counsel of his own will ; that uses all 
the complicated forces of human goodness and ot 
human badness, of malice, ambition, pride, greed, 
and revenge, as well as patriotism and love of 
kind, for the accomplishment of his great pur- 
poses ; that employs even the wickedness of the 
wicked, and yet that is not wicked, but is most 
holy, wise, and powerful to the end. We need 
not, therefore, brethren, have any kind of scruple 
or misgiving in our minds when considenng a 



The Active Pity of a Queen, 153 

passage like that which falls under our consid- 
eration. 

Esther herself is the central figure through this 
book, and a very interesting figure she is. Timid 
and gentle as a woman, enduring of the repres- 
sion to which her sex is subject and has always 
been subject in the East, and yet with strong 
natural feeling, capable of exerting herself in a 
very high degree when a strain is put upon her 
nature, she is cool and calculating when neces- 
sity demands. There is everything about her 
to surround her with interest, and attract to her 
much of our sympathy. But, best of all, she is not 
unmindful of that source whence men and womer 
alike have to receive strength, comfort, and guid- 
ance — that God of Israel who hears the prayers 
of his people, and who has taught us that, if any 
man lack wisdom, he is to ask of God. 

I. Let us look at the calamit}^ that was before 
her, in the contemplation of which she makes 
an appeal to the king, of which this text is a 
part : '' How can I endure to see the evil that 
shall come unto my people? or how can I 
endure to see the destruction of my kindred?" 
Mordecai, a Jew, sitting in the gate of the king's 
palace, had been less subservient and respectful 
than was expected tow^ard the prime minister 
of the king. Why he was so we are not told. 
It may have been that there still remained in 
his Jewish heart some of that hereditary scorn 
with which Hebrews were wont to look upon 
the Amalekites ; but, however it was, his act 
aroused the malice and revenge, and perhaps also 



,f54 The Active Pity of a Queen. 

the greed and covetousness ultimately, of Haman, 
the prime minister of the king. He scorns to take 
revenge on one man ; his burning wrath will be 
satisfied with nothing less than the sacrifice of a 
people. So he schemes and plans for the destruc- 
tion of all the Jews that are captives and exiles in 
the land. It is no bad illustration, by contrast, of 
the blessings of our freedom ; it is no bad illustra- 
tion of the evils and powers of despotism that the 
order for this wholesale murder is given with such 
promptness by this reckless Eastern king, and that 
it is put with such promptness into the hands that 
are to execute it. Esther is made aware, through 
Mordecai, of what is impending, and she compre- 
hends the whole situation. If she did not, the 
timely warning of her kinsman v/ould have 
shown it to her. She adopts the requisite mea- 
sures ; she takes all the proper steps to enlist the co- 
operation of others ; she enlists the religious feel- 
ings of her compatriots ; she gives directions that all 
the Jews in and about the place shall fast, which was 
her way, and the way of the time, of supp-li eating 
Almighty God ; she engages herself in all this 
work of caUing upon the Lord : " I and my maidens 
will fast also." Besides, she takes proper means, 
after approaching the king, of influencing his mind , 
she elaborates with care and pains all the plans by 
which it may be confidently expected she will 
secure his approbation, and be enabled to counter- 
act the devices of this wicked Haman. That she 
should have to adopt means like these, that it should 
be necessary to scheme and plan for getting the 
eai of her husband, that she should hay^ to report 



The Active Pity of a Queen. . 155 

lo these roundabout devices to conciliate his favor, 
may seem to us, with our brighter light and our 
happier Western home-life, strange and inexplica- 
ble ; but there can be no doubt that, in doing all 
this, she was acting in perfect harmony with the 
arrangements of the court in which she lived, and 
adopting the means, strange and, in some respects, 
doubtful, as it would seem to us, that were best 
adapted to accomplish the result and to secure 
a favorable reception of her request on the part 
of the king, whose vassal she was. 

And now, brethren, should we be able, any 
more than Esther, to contemplate the destruction 
of our people and our kindred — not threatening 
nor impending, but a destruction that is actually 
going on round about us every day and every 
year — should we be able to look on with un- 
moved hearts? It is a destruction, I admit, that 
has come in a very different way and by a very 
different set of agencies from that by which it came 
in this narrative. For the revenge and greed of 
Haman, substitute that love of gain that prompts 
men to embark in the liquor trade ; for the usages 
of a reckless, oriental, dissipated court, substitute 
the common social customs of our time; for the 
destruction of those thousands, be the same more 
or less, of the Hebrew exiles in the domain of 
Persia, you ma}^ substitute the destruction of the 
multitudes of men and women, a}^ and children, 
that is in progress continually round about us. 

When a man tries to take in all the horrid situa- 
tion at a glance, he is apt to fail altogether, from 
the very expanse of the dreariness that is before 



156 The Active Pity of a Queen, 

him. It is better, therefore, not to try to take in 
all the situation, but to fix one's attention upon a 
limited department of the great waste that is 
being made by intemperance over the world. 
Take our own city. We have here four hundred 
and seventy places in which worship of some kind 
or another is being addressed to the Almighty 
among our million of people. 1 am told — the 
statement is almost incredible — but I am told that 
we have seven thousand temples where Bacchus 
is worshipped with a homage quite as sincere as 
that we have in our churches, and far more costly 
to the community, for I am assured that two mil- 
lions of dollars a year are paid as a simple tax in 
the first place upon the spirituous liquors that are 
consumed among us. What are the fruits of this 
widespread heathenish worship ? They are to 
be found not in the thirty-four thousand people 
that are taken up in a year for drunkenness and 
disorderly conduct upon our streets — about one- 
half of all the arrests that are made by the police ; 
they are to be found not simply in the eight 
thousand people that are being kept at the public 
expense in our prisons, asylums, and hospitals : but 
they are to be found, dear brethren, in the ruin 
and waste of life in many private dwellings, of 
which the police can take no cognizance ; they 
are to be found in the blighting of so many hopes, 
in the ruin of so many prospects, in the untimely 
end of many lives all over the city, and all over 
the land, so widespread are the ramifications of 
the evil that has thus come to be established 
among us. There is a waj- of making this subject 



The Active Pity of a Queen, 157 

practical to you, dear brethren. How few circles 
are there into which some loss has not come 
through this prevalent sin ! How few families 
there are in this church this afternoon that have 
not been touched more nearly or more remotely 
through this vice in some one of the circles in 
which they themselves move, if not, indeed, in 
their own immediate circle ! 

It is impossible for us, brethren, to exaggerate 
and overstate the evil and mischief that are being 
continually done in the ruin of men and women — 
their ruin in soul, body, and estate — through their 
indulgence in the sin of intemperance. In the^ 
case of Haman and his intended victims, if he 
had been able to accomplish his designs, the 
property and the lives of those thousands would 
have been sacrificed at a single blow. It would 
have been a sharp and severe blow ; it would have 
been a thing done and done with. But that is not 
so with our social proscription that issues in the 
destruction of such multitudes. It is a long, wast- 
ing agony ; it is a slow process. The victim dies 
by inches, so to speak ; and not merely that, but 
he dies amid declining regard, lost self-respect, 
ruined means, weeping women, and sometimes de- 
graded children. Fires burn themselves out; but 
this fire has the peculiarity of finding fuel for itself ; 
for how often has it happened that the drunken 
wife has driven the husband to despair and to 
drunkenness, and how often has it happened 
that the drunken father and mother have com- 
municated to the very physical nature of their 
fchildren the diseased and self-destroying appetite ! 



158 The Active Pity of a Queen. 

How often has it happened that a family of social 
position and attractive manners has succeeded in 
inoculating- a whole circle — perhaps a whole 
neighborhood — with a love of drink ! How in- 
evitably does it happen that, when a man has once 
embarked his means in the trade, hi«s interest and 
his prosperity will grow with the growing love and 
passion for drink among his hapless neighbors 
round about him ! Our fire does not consume 
itself for lack of fuel ; it makes the fuel by which 
it is sustained and upon which it feeds. Brethren, 
if you think that I overstate the case, you can cor- 
rect my estimate ; but I do not well see how 3^ou 
can correct it, if you have been going through life 
with your eyes open to the actual facts that are 
continually transpiring around us. I think you 
will be compelled to admit that, looking at it in 
any point of view, not only in a social but in a 
spiritual point of view, this evil is so gigantic that 
our tongue gives no words that can overstate its 
wicked and atrocious characteristics. 

Brethren, I am not speaking of some remote and 
distant era ; I am not talking to you about the 
opium-eaters of China ; I am speaking here, as 
Esther spoke before the king, of your own people 
and your own kindred. These drunkards that 
are round about, when they become paupers, you 
must support them ; when they become criminals, 
you must detect their crimes, and then confine 
and punish them. And to what cost you are 
necessarily put in protecting yourself against 
them ! As you take up the Monday morning 
papers, anc glance over the cnmec on^q /-oot^^u-^^ 



Tlie Active Pity of a Queen, 159 

of the twenty-four hours that have gone before, 
and as you look at the poor, besotted, degraded, 
and animalized wretches that have been suddenly 
flung into eternity by the pistol or the knife ^A 
their assassin companions, you may get a momen- 
tary view of the horridness of this tiling. But 
you see only a part of it there. You have to 
look at all its ramifications ; you have to think 
how it affects homes ; how it affects religion ; how 
it affects relations to God ; how it sears conscience ; 
how it blinds human spirits to all the interests of 
time and of eternity — these you have to take into 
account in making a correct estimate of the magni- 
tude and frightful character of the evils intemper- 
ance entails. No wonder that any good man, as ' 
he looks at this state of things, should say, '' How 
can I endure to see the evil that shall come upon 
my people? How can I endure to see the de- 
struction of my kindred ?" 

n. Pity is a sentiment. It is a fine sentiment. 
Sometimes it is a mere sentiment. Sometimes 
it evaporates in a little sigh ; or it distils in a 
casual tear, and falls ineffectually to the ground. 
Pity of that kind is worthless; it is worse than 
worthless, it is mischievous. To have these 
pities that come to nothing does us harm — thev 
weaken our character; they absolutely corrupt 
our nature, and they flatter us at the time 
that Ave are being good. That was not the pity 
of Esther ; it was active pit}^ ; it was practical 
sympath}^ I do not need to rehearse the steps 
that she took, and at which we have glanced al- 



i6o The Active Pity of a Queen. 

ready, which you can read for yourselves, if you 
take interest enough in the book to follow its suc- 
cessive incidents. It is enough to say that her 
aim and object, under God, were realized ; it is 
enough to say that the tables were completely 
turned ; it was Haman, and not Mordecai, that 
was hung on the gallows ; Haman's kindred, 
and not her own, perished. The decree that he 
would have to go forth against the Jews w^as exe- 
cuted against his own people, with great severity 
I admit, but not with more severity than was 
natural and common in the times. The wicked 
was snared in the work of his own hands. 

Now, my beloved brethren, from the example 
of this Jewish woman I would borrow a lesson for 
you and a lesson for myself. I would stir up in 
myself, and I would urge upon you, practical sym- 
pathy and active pity, like that exhibited by 
Esther. First of all, let us seek co-operation in the 
war that we would wage with this great vice. 
Strong evils, many times, can be best met by 
associated effort. The individual is weak, where 
the company or the multitude is often strong. 
There is strength in union, and there is a manifest 
advantage in Christian people being banded to- 
gether in societies for dealing with this state of 
things. Information is collected, and then it is 
diffused ; the weak are strengthened ; the zealous, 
who have not always wisdom, are directed, and 
there is concentration given to the effort put forth. 
The human imagination — no small matter in a case 
of this kind — is impressed. I say, no small matter, 
for in a matter of this kind it is a great thing that a 



The Active Pity of a Queen, i6i 

young man, for example, with principles unsettled, 
and too weak to stand straight up upon his own 
convictions, seeing these societies, their organiza- 
tion and results, should be able to say, '* I see I 
can refuse drink and not be despicable. I see I 
can put away the glass and not be counted mean. 
There are most respectable men publicly banded 
together against this thing, and no man dare call 
them sneaks because they pursue this particular 
course of conduct." 

It is something to have societies organized and 
maintained for the enunciation of right principles, 
and the organization and extension of effort in this 
reforming direction. Young men who are here 
do not despise the aid which these societies can give 
to you. If you think that you yourselves do not 
need them, recollect there are many other young 
men that do ; recollect that there are many who 
have been wounded, and have fallen down, and 
they are trying to stand up again, and recover 
themselves, and they need a great deal of help. 
It is very hard for some of them to pass by 
the door of the ''sample-room," the decoy that is 
cunningly arranged for those who have still left 
sufficient self-respect to keep them from going to 
a place that is palpably and indubitably for mere 
drink. 

Young men ! do not despise these agencies and 
societies, but go into them and help them along; 
and if it should seem to you that some of the 
agencies are not the best, that some of their argu- 
ments are feeble, why, do you find better agencies, 
and put into their mouths better arguments, and 



1 62 The Active Pity of a Queen. 

work this thiag as it ought to be worked, for the 
benefit and recovery of your fellow-creatures. 
Men and brethren, strong men, do not you look 
lightly upon these organizations. You may say 
to yourselves, quite truly, '' I have no need to 
be sheltered and protected in such ways as this." 
It is true, perhaps, of you, that your characters are 
formed, and your habits are made ; yo-ur physical 
system is consolidated, so to speak ; your heads are 
strong, and 3^ou can say to yourselves with per- 
fect truth, and you sometimes do say to others, " I 
can take this thing or leave it ; I can do with it or 
without it." Then, my brethren, if you can do 
with it or without ; if your minds and tastes are in 
this state of equilibrium in relation to it, do with- 
out it for the sake of those who are in danger 
through the means of it. 

Fathers ! do without it for the sake of your 
young sons, if for no other reason. How can you 
.ell but that their youthful steps may trip to that 
destruction on this side of which your slower feet 
have been able to halt ? Think of them ; pity them ; 
care for them. I do not say, deny yourselves, for 
you say there is no self-denial in the matter. 
Then, for their sakes, put that thing away which 
you cannot but see is the slope down which such 
multitudes run swiftly into the sea and are 
drowned. 

I make my appeal to Christian women, to 
mothers and sisters. Mothers and sisters ! whom 
our love and devotion have crowned queens in 
our homes, whose influence and whose tastes do 
so much to form our habits and to determine the 



The Active Pity of a Queen. 163 

character of our lives, to whom all manly gallantry 
accords at least the show of respect and of devo- 
tion, I make my appeal to you. Mothers, 3^our 
sons may not be in any danger, you fondly think ; 
but there are others with hearts as tender as yours, 
and they are being broken, slowly broken, by the 
ruin of their sons. 

Sisters ! it seems to you as if those proud 
and manly brothers of yours never could be se- 
duced to ruin ; but there are other brothers as 
brave and as manly as yours ; and to-day, while I 
am preaching in this church, they are in haunts of 
unnamable vice, and they are crushing out the 
lives of their sisters, because they have thus been 
lured to ruin. I make my appeal to you, mothers 
and sisters ; if these poor shattered remains of 
humanity could be arranged in rows before you, 
how would you like to stand up in the presence 
of their mothers and sisters, and say, " I helped 
to produce these results. I put the wine-glass 
to their lips. I made it fashionable and manly 
for them to drink. I urged them to the begin- 
ning of their course, of which this is — God for- 
give me !— the melancholy and miserable result. " ? 
Nor do I plead with 3^ou simply on man's ac- 
count. Mothers and sisters ! this is not a man's 
sin only ; for, as 1 see it, this is a woman's sir. 
too, and in far greater measure than many people 
are read\^ to suspect. I dare not trust myself to 
describe the things I have seen with women, young 
and tender, and sometimes beautiful, upon whose 
more impressible temperament and finer organi- 
zation the destroyer had taken firmer hold, and 



164 The Active Pity of a Queen. 

with women no longer young, but whose soul and 
sense were dead long befoie their eyes were 
closed. For w^oman's sake, for 3'Our own sister's 
sake, I make my appeal to you. jNIothers and 
sisters, discourage and discountenance the usages 
that make it so easy to learn to depend upon the 
excitement that is given by the kindly glass of 
wine; and, when you see that wine resorted to to 
give lost fires to the eye, to give lustre to the 
cheek, and to give fluency to the tongue, let me 
beseech you to see in these things unconscious 
prophecies of the time that shall come when 
destructive fires shall be kindled in the soul, 
Avhen the hectic of disease shall burn upon the 
cheek, and when the incoherent mumblings shall 
indicate the confirmed and helpless drunkard ; 
and, thinking of these things, I bespeak your 
pity, your sj^mpathy, your active pity, your 
practical sympathy. '' How can you endure to 
see the destruction that comes upon your kin- 
dred ?" 

Let not the church turn away from this thing; 
let not any one say to himself, ''This is a mere 
platform theme. It is a sore upon the body politic, 
but it is a sore that ought to be handled only by 
professional men, and not rudely put before us." 
Do not say that, dear brethren, when the ruin is 
so obvious and so dreadful. When men are rob- 
bed, and w^ounded, and stripped in their helpless- 
ness in your way, do not make your model 
the priest or the Levite, but the good Samar- 
itan. Stop, my brethren ; come down ; do what 
you can to lift that robbed and wounded man 



The Active Pity oj a Queen. i6$ 

who is still your brother, and do what 3^011 can 
in al] proper ways to break the power and to 
scatter the influences that culminate in results 
such as now claim your pity. How shall the 
church act about this thing? Had Esther stood 
still in the safe elevation of a Persian palace, in 
unthinking indifference about the destruction of 
her kindred, who would not condemn such base 
heartlessness ? And how is it to be with the 
church of Christ, his spotless spouse, herself re- 
claimed and won and saved, and lifted up to sit 
together in heavenly places in Christ — how shall 
it be with her if she has no eye to pity and no 
heart that yearns to save, and no hand to stretch 
forth relief, when such sin, misery, and wholesale 
destruction are before her everywhere? So I 
make my appeal to you, my brethren of the Church. 
There are queens of society ; would that I could 
make my appeal to those queens of society all 
over these United States ! I would say to 
them, Catch the spirit and copy as far as you 
can the active sympathy and pity of this He- 
brew woman — this patriot of the olden time. 
When two weeks bring round the genial Thanks- 
giving Day, and when the young and old 
gather round the family board, ye queens of 
society, ye queens in our homes, do not put the 
wine-glasF in their hands, do not put the poison- 
ous beverage to their lips. In that clear crystal 
of pure water, believe me, is better far than the 
wine, rosy though it be ; for at last it biteth like 
a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. And when 
the New Year's Dav comes round, and when 



1 56 The Active Pity of a Queen, 

your mends are gathered in your parlors, let 
there be the freest interchange of all kindly 
good-will; let there be unhindered flow of soul; 
but, O woman ! do not, I beseech you, tempt 
man again by putting the forbidden fruit to 
his lips. It may be good-nature and kindliness 
in you, but, oh ! recollect it may be death to 
him. 

I can hardly think of any one of the causes 
that we are in the habit of pleading from our 
pulpits, the arguments for which have not some 
application to the case of the intemperate. I 
can hardly think of an argument for foreign or 
home missions that has not some appropriate- 
ness in the connection in which I now speak to 
you. I would have you look with interest 
upon these temperance organizations, and help 
:hem. Do not trouble 3^ourself about certain 
differences of opinion among those who are intent 
upon reform in this direction. Perhaps from 
some constitutional incapacity to follow it, I am 
conscious of a kind of impatience of minute 
argumentation on subjects where broad and 
sufficient and unquestioned views exist on which 
we are all agreed that we ought to act. It is here 
precisely as it is among men who are seeking 
political reform. Good men have said to them- 
selves, and I hope will continue to say it to the 
end, *' Why, this is not a question as between one 
part^ and another party ; it is a question between 
men of w4iom we hope the best, and men w^ho are 
evidently and undeniably bad." One man has one 
view of the method in which this thing ought to 



The Active Pity of a Queen. 167 

be antagonized, and another has a somewhat 
modified view ; but, brethren, there is substantial 
ag-reement among us that the thing is bad, '* only 
evil, and that continually." Let us, with such 
light, views, and convictions as we have, contend 
against it, until the causes of the waste and destruc- 
tion of so many of our people and our kindred be 
swept utterly away. 

If there is any people on the face of the earth 
that ought to be in earnest about this thing, it is the 
American people. If there is a land upon the face 
of the earth that ought to' be intent upon having 
things right in society, in law, and in fact upon 
this matter, it is this. Only think, with our 
universal suffrage, your property, your liber- 
ty, and, with our elective judiciary, your very 
lives, may be bought and sold for rum. In view 
of the things that have transpired within these 
)^ears past, I should not have wondered any day 
if I had seen an indignant and injured community 
spring to its feet, and say, in the presence of the 
nation, to these tools of corruption : ' When our 
fathers decided upon manhood suffrage, they 
meant the bailot for inen^ not tor imbruted, not 
for ignorant men, not for savages, but for men. 
And we must take care in future that this dread- 
ful power for good or for evil be kept only in the 
hands of men." But there is no use in plj^ing 
with an argument like this these tools of corriip- 
tion themselves. It is from a sphere to which 
the}^ do not rise ; it has to do with interests of 
which they take no cognizance. Men who are 
lost to all sense of what they owe to God and to 



1 68 The Active Pity of a Queen. 

man are not likely to care about great political 
principles: they are above their pursuits and 
above their perceptions. 

1 leave this with you, Christian people, for, 
after all, you must bear the great burden and 
weight of this great work in the world. You 
know the value of immortal souls, for Christ has 
saved you ; you know the deceitfulness of sin, 
for you are continually on your guard against 
the destroyer. Divine grace has reached you 
and redeemed you ; divine pity awoke its echoes 
in your soul, and led you to trust and love Al- 
mighty God. Under the influence of that kind 
of pity, you, Christians, must look upon your 
suffering fellow-creatures; and, having a clear and 
distinct perception of all the issues in time and 
eternity, you can say with an intelligence that 
others do not feel, " How can I endure to see the 
destruction of my kindred ? " May God help all 
of us to be faithful in our place, and to exhibit 
always that active pity and practical sympathy 
of which the text gives us such a beautifu* 
example ! 



Temperance and the Pulpit. 



BT RE7. C. D. POSS, D.D 



" If the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and th« 
people be not warned ; if the sword come, and take any person from among 
them, he is taken away in his iniquity ; but his blood will I require at the 
watchman's hand "— Ezekiel xxxiii. 6. 

I PURPOSE to preach, this evening, a sermon 
on the subject of temperance ; not on tempe- 
rance, in the g-eneral sense of the word, as refer- 
rins: to all the appetites and passions of our com- 
plex nature. I use the word in that restricted 
sense which custom has put upon il:, and the fact 
that the word has become specific emphatically 
indicates that the chief of the foes with which this 
victim has to contend is not avarice, nor gluttony 
nor amusement, but the intoxicating cup. 

There are reasons, very numerous and very 
weighty, for which this theme should be urged 
on the attention of men from the pulpit. The 
statement of some of these reasons will serve, 1 
trust, to give to the doctrine of total abstinence 
the grip of a moral obligation on the consciences 
ol my Christian auditors, and especially of the 



1^0 Temperance and the Pulpit, 

young men of the congregation, whom I shall 
more directly address at the close of this dis- 
course. I dwell on this point, not at all by way 
of apology for the presentation of this theme. 
The cause of temperance is the cause of suffering 
humanity and of God. Those men, therefore, 
ought pre-eminently to be its advocates who are 
specially set apart to advance the glory of God 
by preaching good tidings to fallen man. If I felt 
that I needed any vindication for making tempe- 
rance the theme of frequent discourse from the 
pulpit, I might find it in the fact that 1 belong to 
a church which has a total abstinence Discipline, 
and to a Conference of ministers, numbering two 
hundred and sevent}^ which years ago resolved 
itself into a total abstinence society, without a 
single dissenting voice, and which has repeatedly 
enjoined on all its ministers the duty of preaching 
specifically on this subject. Among the things 
forbidden by the '* General Rules " of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, immediately after profa- 
nity and Sabbath-breaking, we find these words : 
"■ Drunkenness, buying or selling spirituous liquors, 
or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme neces- 
sity." 

My object in showing you the intimate relations 
of this theme to the Christian pulpit is to intensify 
your conviction that it has imperative claims on 
the attention and sympathy of every philanthropic 
man. If it is my duty to help forward this chief 
among the moral reforms of the age, it is your 



Temperance and the Ptilpit. i/i 

duty also. That it is my duty, and the duty of 
every pastor, who can doubt ? If drink, accursed 
drink, be not a devouring " sword,' by which 
man}^ a wretched, self-destroyed victim " is taken 
away in his iniquity," then let '' the watchman '* 
"blow not the trumpet"; but if it be the arch- 
destroyer of men, even of the strongest, more fatal 
than the sword of Alexander or Napoleon, then 
let the trumpet everywhere lift up its note of 
alarm, and nowhere " give an uncertain sound." 

I. The pulpit should set itself* against the sin of 
intemperance and the causes of intemperance, because 
of the unnumbered and incompiitable evils which flow 
from it. I will not shock your sensibilities by a 
protracted recital of these evils, and, alas ! I need 
not. They are so widespread as to be well-nigh 
omnipresent ; they thrust themselves before all 
our eyes, and strain almost all our heart-strings. 
There are but few families which have not been 
befouled by the slime of this serpent and pierced 
by the sting of this adder. If not in the immediate 
circle of the home, then in the next larger circle 
of near relationship, the curse has fallen. How 
many times, in the discharge of my pastoral func- 
tions, have I visited homes in which there ha-s 
been an ominous silence concerning same one 
member of the family — perhaps a husband, a bro- 
ther, or a father ! By-and-by, without Tiny in- 
quiry, the sad truth which I feared has come to 
aiy knowledge. He is a drunkard — a voluntary 



172 Temperance and the Pulpits 

victim of that accursed appetite which has wrought 
more various and blasting evils among men than 
any other of those '' fleshly lusts which war against 
the soul." 

Lord Bacon says: '' All the crimes on earth do 
not destroy so many of the human race nor alienate 
so much propert}^ as drunkenness." Take the bald 
and terrible fact that every year 60,000 human 
wrecks are buried in drunkards' graves in the 
United States alone ; 1,200 polluted souls go howl- 
ing forth into a drunkard's hell every week; 170 
per day. 

This annual contribution comes from the ranks 
of an army of drunkards 600,000 strong. But the 
death of so many inebriates is the least of all the 
evils of intemperance to the community at large. 
Tc the victims themselves, it is indeed the sum of 
inconceivable woes, the fulfilment of that divine 
warning often sounded in their ears : " At the 
last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an 
adder " ; but to the community their exit is a 
gain. Their loathsome bodies and ruined intel- 
lects and corrupted souls were an offence to men, 
and the hopeless agony of broken-hearted love 
had long wished them gone. The loss to the com- 
munity dated back long before the final catas- 
trophe, to the time when the hand began to 
tremble, and the brain began to be clouded, and 
the freeman began to be a slave. 

lake the facts, that intemperance in this nation 
has actually cost it more money than all its 



Temperance and the Pulpit, 173 

ichools^ colleges, and churches, and all the ex- 
penses of the government before the war ; and 
that of all the murders, robberies, and other 
crimes, four out of five are directly chargeable 
to drink. In Potter County, Pa., where no liquor 
was sold in 1865, not a single case was brought 
forward for trial at the autumn session of the 
court. 

But you must not look simply at drunkards. 
Intemperance begins long before the point of 
visible inebriation. Drunkenness is only the sign 
which intemperance hangs out to the world in its 
later stages. Many of its worst evils are produced 
before a stranger would surmise anything wrong. 
That heroic man who delivered such telling blows 
against this sin when he stood almost alone, Lyman 
Beecher, put before the people, more than forty 
years ago, these memorable words : " A multitude 
of persons, who are not accounted drunkards, 
create disease and shorten their days by what 
they denominate a * prudent use of ardent spirits.' 
Let it therefore be engraven on the heart of 
every man that the daily use of ardent 

SPIRITS, IN ANY FORM OR IN ANY DEGREE, IS IN- 
TEMPERANCE. Its effects are certain and deeply 
injurious, though its results may be slow, and 
never be ascribed to their real cause. No person 
probably ever did, or ever will, receive ardent 
spirits into his system once a day, and fortify his 
constitution against its deleterious effects." Dr. 
Beecher also speaks, in the same connection, of 



f74 Temperance and the Pulpit, 

that well-known " state of experience when the 
empire of reason is invaded, and weakness and 
folly bear rule ; prompting to garrulity or sullen 
silence ; inspiring petulance or anger, or insipid 
good-humor and silly conversation ; pouring out 
oaths and curses, or opening the storehouse of 
secrets, their own and others." It is now a well- 
established fact that, long before the goal of 
drunkenness is reached, real intoxication occurs ; 
and there are incomputable evils of intemperance 
before the tongue begins to falter or the feet to 
trip. 

Add to the manifest and disgusting effects of 
drunkenness, which we must see wherever we 
turn our eyes, this immensely larger catalog^.ie of 
the evils which flow from intemperance in its ear- 
lier stages ; remember that the ministers of reli- 
gion are called to imitate the example and carry 
forward the work of him whose biography is writ- 
ten in these five words, '' who went about doing 
good," and that his doing good consisted in over- 
coming evil, and then tell me whether the pulpit 
has or has not a mission against the greatest 
aggregation of evils under which Christendom 
groans. 

II. The pulpit should make war on rum, because 
rum makes war on the pulpit. Intemperance is one 
of the huge St obstacles in the way of the Gospel. The 
reign of King Jesus and the reign of King Alcohol 
are always in inverse ratio. Wherever rum-shops 



Temperance and the Pulpit. 175 

are the great centres of attraction, there churches 
are deserted. The assertion of Paul is proved 
truf : " Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and 
I he cup of devils." If the tables of drunken 
revelry are numerously surrounded, the sacra- 
mental table is neglected. Satan has no more 
efficient batteries planted over against our cita- 
dels of virtue, our homes and school-houses and 
churches, than those temples of his where the 
incense of XXX ales and wines and liquors per- 
petually fills the air. He has no better infantry 
and cavalry than the multiform drinking customs 
of society. 

As a Christian minister, I oppose drink, because 
it opposes me. The work I try to do, it undoes. 
My charge against it at this point is single and 
simple : it is an obstacle to the spread of the 
Gospel ; nay, it is an enemy which assails the 
Gospel, and whose complete success would drive 
the Gospel from the earth. The chains it forges 
are the strongest and most galling ever fastened 
on the human body or the human soul. There is 
not a sinner on the face of the earth so unlikely 
to be savingly affected by the influences of the 
Gospel as the habitual drunkard. He may be a 
man of delicate sensibihty, of lofty purpose, and 
of towering intellect ; he may have qualities which, 
untainted by alcohol, would adorn any character ; 
but, if he is addicted to his cups, his destination 
is almost inevitably the bottomless pit. The sal- 
vation of a thorough drunkard ?s one of the might- 



J 7^ Temperance and the Pulpit, 

iest miracles of Almighty grace. I know men who 
are frequently convicted of their need of experi- 
mental religion, but who are held back from a 
single step towards it by the charms of rum. All 
other fetters would be as gossamer in the way of 
their urgent longing ; this holds them. Many a 
poor, broken-hearted wretch has staggered up to 
the altar for prayer, and cried earnestly for mercy, 
and reeled away again to drown his sorrows in 
the bowl which caused them, and which will 
aggravate them, until they culminate amid un- 
quenchable flames. 

So far as the probability of success m the pro- 
clamation of my message is concerned, let me go 
to the brazen blasphemer of the name most dear 
to my heart ; let me go to the forger, who for 
long years has been using satanic cunning to 
defraud his fellow-men ; let me go to the mur- 
derer, who lies in felon's chains awaiting the exe- 
cution of the law's supreme penalty ; but send me 
not to the pitiable object in human shape, \^ hose 
spirit is beclouded, and whose flesh is reeking 
wdth the fumes of rum. And why ? Because his 
will is enthralled by the direst bondage conceiv- 
able. His manhood is in the dust, and a demon 
sits on the chariot of the soul, lashing the fiery 
steeds of passion. No possible motive, or com- 
bination of motives, can be urged upon him which 
will stand a moment before the infernal clamor- 
ings of his appetite. One of these unfortunate 
beings (for I know not but they are to be pitied 



Temperance and the Pulpit, IJJ 

as much as blaaied) once said that, if he were 
placed in one corner of a room, with a jug of rum 
in the opposite corner, and a cannon firing balls 
across the room ev^ery instant, he should start for 
the rum. No other habit has such power. It is 
not so with the swearer or the forger or the mur- 
derer. The Gospel can be presented to either of 
them from a more advantageous standpoint. 

The truth here insisted on stands out with 
fearful vividness, if you compare a drunkard's 
death-bed with that of other sinners. Take the 
case of one who escapes death by his own hand 
or by accident (a multitude of them are carried off 
in these ways), but who stands on the verge of a 
dishonored grave, brought there by his own ex- 
cesses. It seems as though the good influences 
which linger round all other death-beds, as long 
as life remains in the body, have deserted him. 
You need not repeat m his ear the fearful assur- 
ance that ** no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom 
of God." He feels it in his inmost soul. * Hell 
from beneath is moved to meet him " at his com- 
ing. The devils are so sure of him that they can- 
not wait for the spirit to leave the body. They 
come up and fill the room. His eyes see them 
just as distinctly as they see the terror-stricken 
relatives that stand around his bed. 

Listen to a brief account of this dreadful condi- 
tion, extracted from the writings of one who has 
experienced it, and has since become an eloquent 
advocate of temperance : 



1/8 Teinperance and the Pulpit, 

" Who can tell the horrors of that horrible mala- 
dy, aggravated as it is by the almost ever-abiding 
consciousness that it is self-sought ? . . . Hideous 
faces appeared on the walls and on the ceiling and 
on the floors; foul things crept along the bed 
clothes, and glaring eyes peered into mine. I was 
at one time surrounded by myriads of monstrous 
spiders, which crawled slowly, slowly, over every 
limb, whilst the beaded drops of perspiration 
would start to my brow, and my limbs would 
shiver until the bed rattled again. Strange lights 
would dance before my eyes, and then suddenly 
the very blackness of darkness would appall me 
by its dense gloom. All at once, whilst gazing 
at a frightful creation of my distempered mind, 
I seemed to be struck with sudden blindness. I 
knew a candle was burning in the room, but 1 
could not see it — all was so pitchy dark. I lost 
the sense of feeling, too, for I endeavored to grasp 
my arm in one hand, but consciousness was gone 
I put my hand to my side, my head, but felt no- 
thing, and still I knew my limbs, my frame, were 
there. And then the scene would change. I was 
falliTig — falling swiftly as an arrow — far down into 
some terrible abyss ; and so like reality was it 
that, as I fell, I could see the rocky sides of the 
horrible shaft, where mocking, gibing, fiend like 
f :)rms were perched, and I could feel the air rush- 
ing past me, making the sweat stream out by the 
force of the unwholesome blast. Then the parox- 
ysm sometimes ceased for a few moments, and I 



Temperance and the Pulpit, I79 

would sink back on my pallet drenched with 
perspiration, utterly exhausted, and feeling 
a dreadful certainty of the renewal of my tor- , 
ments." 

Now, with what prospect of success could the 
minister go to the bedside of such a fiend-haunted 
man, to pour into his ears the consolations of the 
Gospel ? Far be it from me to say that the occu- 
pant of such a bed cannot possibly pass from it to 
Abraham's bosom. I am ready to preach Jesus 
to any man as long- as the blood courses his veins, 
but I will say I am utterly unable to conceive a 
case more hopeless. 

It is not surprising that the great apostle of 
temperance, who had twice suffered all the hor- 
rors above described, should breathe forth, as I 
have heard him, with thrilling effect, the following 
prayer : " Almighty God, if it be thy will that man 
should suffer, whatever seemeth good in thy sight 
impose on me. Let the bread of affliction be 
given me to eat. Take from me the iViends of 
my confidence. Let the cold hut of povert}'' be 
my dwelling-place, and the wasting hand of dis- 
ease inflict its painful torments. Let me sow in 
the whirlwind and reap in the storm. Let those 
have me in derision who are younger than L Let 
the passing awa\^ of my welfare be like the fleet- 
ing of a cloud, and the shouts of my enemies be 
like the rushing of waters. When I anticipate 
good, let evil annoy me ; when I look for light, 
let darkness come upon me. Let the terrors of 



i8o Temperance and the Pulpit 

death be ever before me. . . . Do all this, but 
save me, merciful God, save me from the fate of a 
drunkard/' 

Now, shall the pulpit, or shall it not, utter its 
emphatic and reiterated protest against men's 
needless haste in rushing into evils so enormous ? 
Shall it or shall it not warn the young against 
those threads of gossamer, which are scarcely felt 
until they grow into chains of steel, unbearable 
aiid unbreakable ? Shall it or shall it not jealously 
gtfard itself against the assaults of this wily foe ? 
For there is no other temptation which lias been 
so destructive to the character of Christian minis- 
ters. God's command to Aaron and his sons was, 
*' Do not drink wine nor strong drink . . . lest 
ye die." If all their successors had heeded this 
warning, religion would have been spared many 
a severe reproach. What a proof it is of the insi- 
dious and awful power of this temptation, that 
any n^ihister of Christ should be lured on by it 
to destruction, in spite of all the seemingly resist- 
less motives which cry out against the monstrous 
folly and sin ! His position, his reputation, his 
family, his church, his Bible, his Saviour, all pro- 
test ; but the enchanting cup meets him at every 
turn, and down he goes. Oh ! what a fall — from 
the pulpit into hell ! 

III. There is another thought, which makes 
me feel that this theme should be earnestly and 
plainly discoursed upon from the pulpit. // is 



Temperance and the Pulpit i8l 

manifestly God's order that the church should take the 
lead in every great moral reform. 

Slavery was not abolished, and never could 
have been, by any band of voluntary reformers, 
following in the wake of infidels and open revilers 
of Christ and his church. I once heard from the 
lips of that silver-tongued orator, whom I never 
hear without coveting him for Jesus, this declara- 
tion : " If all the churches in this country had 
been sunk through the earth forty years ago, the 
cause of human freedom would have been further 
forward." Over against such insane folly put the 
words of that great, good man who guided the 
ship of state into the port of universal freedom, 
and whom posterity will call not only patriot, but 
sage : *' The government has been nobly sustained 
by all the churches ; God bless the churches ; and 
blessed be God, who, in this our great trial, giveth 
us the churches." The mightiest of human forces 
is the aroused conscience of a great people, and 
the chief quickener and educator of the conscience 
is the pulpit. Therefore, 

" I say the pulpit, in the sober use 
Of its legitimate, peculiar power, 

Must stand acknowledged, while the world shall stand. 
The most important and effectual guard, 
Support, and ornament of virtue's cause." 

One great error of the Washingtonian move- 
ment was, that it did not ally itself with religion, 
but often threw contempt upon the church. A 



1 82 Temperance and the Pulpit 

popular and eloquent temperance speaker, during 
that campaign, said, as he arose to speak at a 
meeting which had been opened with prayer, '' 1 
never can bear to be prayed over when I am 
going to talk temperance." Gough has no objec- 
tion to being prayed over, nor Dodge, nor Colfax. 
One of the most hopeful features of the great re- 
form is, that it is at length chiefly in the hands of 
religious men, and that its promoters feel the 
urgent need of enlisting the hearty co-operation of 
the ministr}' and the church. 

* Christmas Evans, the great Welsh preacher, 
met with much trouble in his temperance efforts 
from his brother ministers who were not willing 
to make the entire sacrifice of their cups. One in 

particular, Mr. W , of A , was obstinately 

opposed. Evans prepared to meet him. He 
polished an arrow, and put it in his quiver. On 
one occasion he was appointed to preach, and, as 
usual, there were gatherings from far and near to 

hear him. Mr. W , of A , was there also ; 

but, as in anticipation of an attack, he at first said 
he should not be present while Evans preached ; 
yet such was the fascination that he could not stay 
away. By-and-by he crept up into the gallery, 
where the preacher's eye — for he had but one — 
which had been long searching for him, at length 
discovered him. All went on as usual until the time 
came when the arrow might be drawn, which was 
done slyly and unperceived. '' I had a strange 
dream the other night," said the preacher. " I 



Temperance and the Pulpit, 183 

dreamed that I was in Pandemonium, the council- 
chamber of Hades. How I got there I know not, 
but there I was« I had not been there long before 
tliere came a thundering rap to the gate. ' Beelze- 
bub, Beelzebub, you must come to earth directly.' 
' Why, what is the matter now 7 * They are send- 
ing out missionaries to preach to the heathen.' 

* Are they? Bad news this. I'll be there pre- 
sently.' Beelzebub came, and hastened to the 
place of embarkation, where he saw the mission- 
aries, their wives, and a few boxes of Bibles and 
tracts, but, on turning round, he saw rows of 
casks, piled up, and labelled * gin,' * rum,' ' brandy,* 
etc. ' That will do,' said he ; 'no fear 3^et. These 
casks will do more harm than the boxes can do 
good.' So saying, he stretched his wings for hell 
again. After a time came another loud call: 

* Beelzebub, they are forming Bible Societies.' 
'Are they? Then I must go.' He went, and 
found two ladies going from house to house, dis- 
tributing the Word of God. * This won't do,' 
thought he, ' but I will watch the result.' The 
ladies visited an aged female, who received a Bible 
with much reverence and many thanks. Satan 
loitered about, and, when the ladies were gone, 
saw the old woman come to the door and look 
around to assure herself that she was unobserved. 
She then put on her bonnet, and with a small par- 
cel under her apron, hastened to the next public- 
ho'ise, where she pawned the new Bible for a bot- 
tle of gin. ' That will do,' said Be*elzebub, * no 



184 Temperance and the Pulpit, 

fear yet '; and back again he flew to his own place. 
Again came a loud knock and hasty summons, 
' They are forming Temperance Societies.' ' Tem- 
perance Societies! what's that? I'll come and 
see.' He came and saw, and flew back muttering, 
' This won't do much harm to me or my people , 
they are forbidding the use of ardent spirits ; but 
they have left my poor people all the ale and por- 
ter, and the rich all the wines ; no fear yet.' 
Again came a louder rap, and a more and more 
urgent call, ' Beelzebub! you must come now, or 
all is lost ; they are forming teetotal societies.' 
* Teetotal ! what in the name of all my imps is 
that ?' ' To drink no intoxicating liquors what- 
ever. The sole beverage is water.' 'Indeed; 
that is bad news ! I must see after this.' And he 
did, but went back again to satisfy the anxious 
inquiries of his legions, who were all qui vive 
about the matter. * Oh ! ' said Ke, ' don't be 
alarmed. True, it's an awkward affair, but it 
won't spread much yet, for all the parsons are 

against it, and Mr. W , of A (sending up 

an eagle glance of his eye at him), is at the head 
of them.' " *' But I won't be at the head of them 

any longer," cried out Mr. W , and walking 

calmly down to the table-pew, signed the pledge 
amid loud cheers.' 

It remains only to ask what is the general plan 
of resistance to be employed against this stu- 
pendous evil } 



Temperance and the Pulptt, 185 

r am persuaded the youth before me would be 
glad to know what they ought now to do, and 
what they ought to plan for the future against an 
evil which the most strenuous exertions of our 
generation will not suffice utterly to abate. I 
know the heart of a young man. I know his jeal- 
ousy of any influence whi-ch can interfere with the 
fullest and most S3^mmetrical development of his 
mind and heart. I know his generous impulses 
to reclaim the erring and inspire them with the 
same noble sentiments which thrill his own breast. 
Ana with regard to this pitiable weakness and 
shameful sin of intemperance (for it is both), I now 
say to every young man before me, '' Do thyself 
no harm," and '* Love thy neighbor as thyself." 

Many of the most intelligent, philanthropic, and 
leligious men in the world have been giving earn- 
est attention to this subject for ages, and especi- 
ally during the last thirty or forty years. I sub- 
mit that their deliberate judgments are entitled 
to great respect. There have been and are among 
them men of profound scientific attainments, 
chemists, physiologists, physicians, able lawyers 
and judges, governors and senators, philanthro- 
pists, scholars, divines. They have met and con- 
sulted. The}^ have brought to their aid all the 
discoveries of science, all the principles of human 
action, all the power of prayer. They have framed 
their theories, and put them to the test of experi- 
ence and public criticism, and then have improved 
them. They have done all this under the solemn 



1 86 Temperance and the Pulpit, 

pressure of an abiding conviction that the chief 
foe to our social happiness and national security 
is strong drink. The conclusions they have reachec 
are that, first of all, nothing but sleepless activit} 
can carry forward this noble reform or save \\ 
from disgraceful and disastrous wreck. They as- 
sert the need of contributions of influence from 
the purse, the pen, the tongue, and the conscience 
— the four powers which control society. The 
evil they seek to overthrow is founded on those 
two mighty forces of evil, appetite and avarice, 
and has for its chief body-guard social usages and 
political corruption. 

The advocates of the temperance reformation 
are thoroughly agreed in another thing, viz., that 
the chief hope and indispensable condition of the suc- 
cess of this moveinent lies in total abstinence. Up 
to this point, I think it likely no person present 
has dissented from any position I have taken. 
Grant me now a candid hearing while I attempt, 
in a few words, to vindicate this vital principle. 
I desire to place it on a foundation where you 
can all stand firmly with me. So I neither afiirm 
nor deny anything concerning several positions 
which are confidently held by many able advo- 
cates of total abstinence. I do not assert that all 
intoxicating beverages are essentiall}^ poisonous, 
though this is cogently argued by many learned 
physicians and chemists ; and though it is gener- 
ally conceded that they have no nourishment in 
thsm, but are simply excitants. 1 do not say that 
t*ry are in every instance positively injurious. I 



Temperance and the Pulpit, 187 

Ao not say it is a sin for any man, under any cir- 
cumstances, to drink a glass of wine. Let the 
twofold basis on which I now rest the argument 
for total abstinence be distinctly understood : 

1. It is the only personal security. 

2. It is the only effective example. 

Hence every young man should adopt it as one 
of the rules of his life, and make it like a '' law of 
the Medes and Persians, which altereth not." 

Bear in mind the truth already announced, that 
the sore evils of intemperance begin far back ot 
the point of visible inebriation. The simple item 
of exposure to disease will serve as an illustration. 
In Albany, in 1832, there were 396 cases of cho- 
lera ; all bat 16 terminated fatally. Of these, 140 
were drunkards ; 38 free drinkers; 131 moderate 
drinkers ; and 5 total abstainers. In St. Louis, in 
1849, out of a population of 75,000, there were 
about 10,000 deaths by cholera — 13 per cent. 
Among the victims, there were only 10 out of the 
2,000 Sons of Temperance there — one-half of one 
per cent. So total abstinence had the adv^antage, 
26 to I. 

But I will not dwell on secondary matters. I 
declare my conviction that total abstinence is the 
only complete security against the disgrace and 
the doom of drunkenness. I know how hard it is 
for any man to realize this for himself. I know 
how prompt the almost indignant response : '' ] 
have too much self-respect to admit the insinua- 
tion of such weakness ; I can stand." 1 confess 
to no little sympathy with such feelings. But let 



1 88 Temperance and the Pulpit, 

such overweening- self-confidence be sobered by 
facts. Who of all the sixty thousand whom drink 
tumbles into the most dishonored of graves in 
this country every year ever expected to go there 
when the cruel habit began ? Who of them all 
did not say, as you and I are ready to say to- 
night : " I know my strength ; I have too much 
manhood in me to become a slave"? Ah ! there 
comes a voice from the grave of many a brilliant 
son of genius — many a once holy minister of the 
Gospel — saying to you, young man, and to me : 
** Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed 
lest he fall." 

I do not hesitate to say that a personal religious 
experience is no sufficient safeguard agamst the 
demon of drink, unless it be girt about with the 
bulwark of total abstinence. If a Christian plays 
with a serpent, he may be bitten to death. God 
promises no miracles. The Sunday-school is one 
of the safest havens on earth ; yet from its sacred 
precincts thousands of teachers and scholars have 
been swept into ruin by this fell destroyer. The 
Rev. Dr. Guthrie, in his book on *' The City, its 
Sins and Sorrows," cites many facts, which almost 
oass belief. I give a few specimens. Among the 
prisoners tried at the Glasgow assizes m Septem- 
ber, 1848, sixty-two had been connected wdth 
Sunday-schools ; and of these, fifty-nine admitted 
that drinking and public-house company had lea 
them away from the Sunday-school, and into 
crime. At Launceston, out of one hundred boys 
>V ^ Sunday-school, forty were overcome bj 



Temperance and the Pulpit. 189 

drink. " At Ipswich, out of fifteen young men 
profevSsing piety, and teachers in the Sabbath- 
school, nine were ruined through drink." Such 
frightful statements would be instantly rejected 
if they came on any inferior authority. They 
only show the power of the rum-fiend where the 
temperance reformation has but little foothold. 
Religious youth ! listen to me. I appeal to you 
to say whether if, in the face of such facts, any 
man plays with this adder, and is stung to death, 
his ruin is not deserved ? 

I have one more argument. It is one which 
addresses itself to. every noble sentiment and 
generous impulse of our natures. " It ^s good 
aeither to eat flesh [offered to idols], nor to drink 
wme, nor anything whereby thy brother stum- 
bleth, or is offended, or is made weak." O that 
stumbling brother, that stumbling brother ! What 
can I do to save him ? I must not pass him by. 
I am my brother's keeper. It was the first deist 
and murderer who denied this plainest maxim at 
once of social ethics and of religion. "■ No man 
liveth unto himself." We are each in a network 
of influence, and our every movement affects 
others. We are bound to recognize this fact; 
and we must share the responsibility of the results 
of our action. It will not do to say, " If I drink 
only one glass of wine at a party, my neighbor 
ought not to be led by my example to drink five, 
and go home drunk." Very likely he will be. 
You know he may be ; and if he is, what will you 
answer at the judgment-bar ? 



190 Temperance a7id the Pulpit. 

The principle is that things not wrong per s€ 
are to be given up if our use of them hurts others. 
This principle made Paul the man he was. It was 
the ke3-note of his sublime career. He was ever 
ready to surrender anything personal for the good 
of men. '' I am made all things to all men, so 
that by all means I might save some." *' I could 
wish myself accursed from Christ for my breth- 
ren." " The love of Christ constraineth me, be- 
cause I thus judge that if he died for all, then 
were all dead ; and that he died for all that they 
which live should not henceforth live unto them- 
selves." The same spirit of self-sacrifice for 
others' good gave Christ his fame. "He hum- 
bled himself and became obedient unto death ; 
. . . wherefore God hath highly exalted him, 
and given him a name that is above every name." 

Oh ! if this grand principle of self-sacrificing 
love to men for Jesus' sake could become univer- 
sally operative in the church, what magnificent 
results it would achieve ! It would set ever- 
narrowing bounds to the tide of drunkenness, 
and throttle the demon of drink, it would untie 
the purse-strings of many a rich man, and move 
him to lay all his net income and half his estate 
on the altar of God ; it would loose many a tongue 
that now finds no words to plead Christ's cause 
with the perishing ; it would make every disciple 
an unceasing laborer together with God ; it would 
bring in the millennium in our lifetime ; it would 
soon present this world a spotless jewel unto 
Uhnst 



The Evils of Intemperance. 



•' Who hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath contentions ? who hath 
babbling ? who hath wounds without cause ? who hath redness, of eyes ? They 
that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek mixed wint. Look not thou 
upon the wine when it is red, when it giv^th his color in the cup. when it 
moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingetb like aa 
adder. 'J'tiineeyes shall behold strange women and thine heart shall utter per- 
verse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the 
sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalL 
thou say. and I was not sick ; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when 

•<all I awake ? I will seek it yet again." — Proverbs xxiii. 29-35. 

^T EV^ER in the history of this commonwealth 
^ was there an hour when the subject of in- 
temperance needed a more serious and thorough 
consideration than the present. During the last 
forty years light has been poured upon it such as 
it never had before. Science, experience, reason, 
philanthropy, religion ; all the powers of the wise 
and good have combined in the work of examin- 
ing and exposing the enormoi^s crime and ruin 
which attend the use of intoxicating drinks. The 
*' former times " may have been, in some respects, 
** the times of ignorance," which God compara- 
tively " winked at." But now that darkness is all 
past. The true light shineth. No inteUigent 
man nee^ls to take, or has a right to take, any du- 
bious or }j/ilf way views upon this subject. There 



IQ2 TJic Evils of Intemperance. 

is no reasonable doubt in regard to the crime and 
curse of intemperance. Its immorality, its his- 
tory, its influences, could be made no clearer if 
written by an *' angel standing in the sun." We 
come to you with no faltering faith or ambiguous 
words in regard to this matter. We do not say : 
"We think'' — ''we believe'' — "we suppose" that 
the matter stands so-and-so. We know, we are 
SURE, that intemperance is one of the most tre- 
mendous crimes and curses that man ever felt or 
Satan ever gloried in. 

Probably intemperance never raged in our 
country more than now. The devil has availed 
himself of the present wretched state of things, as 
a sort of truce, in which to build up his fortresses 
and enlarge his forces with immeasurable industry 
and success. Political legislation has generally 
been in the interest of strong drink. Some re- 
formers have grown weary of the struggle. Men 
who have stood beside the graves of drunken 
fathers, or brothers, or sons, still take no interest 
in the temperance cause. In the meantime, the 
great commander-in-chief of drunkenness has 
erected immense fortifications of brewery, distil- 
lery, and warehouse on many a hilltop and wharf, 
and has lined every city street, and every country 
roadside, with rifle-pits of bar-room and saloon. 
Never did any other chieftain so skilfully arrange 
his forces to sweep every neighborhood in all the 
country from end to end. 

And what is the community doing all this time ? 



The Evils of Intemperance, 193 

More than one-half of them are sleeping or indif- 
ferent, while tens of thousands are continually 
being captured or destroyed. Among those tens 
of thousands is an appalling multitude of the 
young. The cry comes up to us on every side 
that the young are becoming drunkards. You 
can see it everywhere for yourself. In the bar- 
room, in the restaurant, by the beer fount, on the 
steamboat, in the car, yoM can see young men 
drinking, or manifesting too plainly the effects of 
drink. A few years ago, it was accounted a deep 
disgrace, and was practised only in secret. Now, 
it is done openly, as a thing of bravery and glory 
— the glory of their shame. 

This state of things calls upon every generous 
and virtuous young man to take a proper and de- 
cided stand upon this subject. If you are radi- 
cally wrong here, there is tremendous danger that 
you will come out wrong everywhere. 

I shall confine myself at this time to one single 
department of the subject, namely. The evils of 
intemperance. This is the great basis on which we 
build our opposition. Our antagonism to strong 
drink is not a mere sentiment or theory ; it is 
based on dark, dreadful, unquestionable facts — 
the actual evils of intemperance. 

It is to these evils, you will observe, that those 
sentences of Solomon refer which I have read to 
you ; and what a picture is that ! Look at it 
again. It was taken nearly three thousand years 
ago ; but what a perfect photog^raph is it of the 



194 The Evils of Intemperance, 

drunkard still! His woe — his babbling — his 
wounds — his redness of eyes — the biting serpent 
— the strange women — the reeling — the stupidity 
— the insatiate thirst. Why, it is perfectly life- 
like 1 It has a thousand counterparts every day. 
I shall divide the evils of intemperance into 
three classes — namely, Personal, Social, and Civil, 



I. In attempting to speak of the personal evils, 
a formidable multitude appears before me, from 
which 1 can select only here and there a repulsive 
cluster. Let me allude first to 

(a) The ///j/i-^'^r^^/ evils of intemperance. Alco- 
hol is a poison. Who says so? Science. It is 
no bugbear of temperance men, as such. Chemi- 
cal tests, and the witness of men of the highest 
scientific character, put it high on the list of vege- 
table poisons. Upon this subject, any number of 
names and testimonies could be given. Let mo^ 
give a sample or two : 

One physician says : '' We have incontrovertible 
proof that spirit is a poison of the same nature as 
prussic acid, producing the same effects, killing 
by the same means, paralyzing the muscles of re- 
spiration, and so preventing the necessary change 
of black mto vermilion blood." 

The name of Sir Astley Cooper is a lofty one 
in medical science, and this is his testimony : " No 
man can have a greater hostility to dram-drinking 
than myself, insomuch that I never suffer any 



The Evils of Intemperance. iq^ 

ardent spirits in my house, thinking them evil 
spirits. And if the poor could witness the white 
livers, the dropsies, the shattered nervous systems 
which I have seen, as the consequences of drink- 
ing, they would be aware that spirits and poisons 
are synonymous terms." 

Another physician says of the drunkard's corpse : 
" Every tissue proclaims but too distinctly the 
injury it has received. There are no marks of 
weakness or decrepitude, as the result of natural 
decay and advancing age ; but all the organs, in 
accents awfully impressive, speak of poison, of 
madness, of self-immolation. The anatomist turns 
away in horror." 

Such are simply samples of the testimony 
which men of science give upon the subject. All 
that is needed to produce death in the case of 
alcohol as of any other poison, is that one takes 
sufficient quantity. It is possible, in a single 
draught, to take enough to kill a man at once ; 
and this has been done. Its effects upon brute 
animals are similar to those on the human species. 
Dr. Percy, a British physician, tried the experi- 
ment of injecting two and a half ounces of alco- 
hol (about one-third of an ordinary tumblerful) 
into the stomach of a dog, and the animal dropped 
down dead very much as if he had been struck 
with a club. 

You may tell me that some persons do use 
spirituous liquors many years, and yet they live. 
But does that prove that they are not poisonous ? 



196 The Evils of Intemperance, 

In Germany, it is quite customary, in some places, 
for the ladies to take a mild solution of arsenic to 
improve their complexions; and the men some- 
times take small quantities pure as tonics, and 
think they cannot do without it ; and these per- 
sons may live many years. But is not arsenic 
a poison for all that ? And do not physicians tes- 
tify that such persons' lives are shortened by such 
habits ? 

Nature does indeed fight bravely and long to 
resist and repair the damage of some of the poi- 
sons forced upon it, whether by arsenic, or 
opium, or alcohol; but the poison is there never- 
theless, and it does shorten even the longest life, 
while it cuts the most of its victims down in the 
very beginning of their race. 

In all this, I have spoken only of the real nature 
and legitimate effects of genuine alcoholic liquors. 
But if these things are so with the genuine arti- 
cles, how much more deadly must be the poison 
of those vile compounds, colored, and flavored, and 
sold all over the land under the fictitious names 
of " brandy," '* gin," and '* champagne " ? Oil of 
vitriol, oil of almonds, oil of turpentine, Imie- wa- 
ter, sub-acetate of lead, sulphate of lead, strych- 
nine, logwood, tannin, fusel oil, and cockroaches — 
such are some of the delicious elements which 
help to make up more than nine-tenths of the 
delightful beverages which young men, and fash, 
ionable men, and poor m.en, aed rich men, and all 
kinds of drinking men, claim as their privilege and 



The Evils of Intemperance, 197 

joy to use. What fine elixirs of life, in which 
friend may pledge the health of friend ! 

The late Dr. Nott said : '' I had a friend who 
had been once a wine-dealer, and, having read the 
startling statements made public in relation to the 
compounding of wines and the adulteration of 
other liquors generall}^ I enquired of that friend as 
to the verity of those statements. His reply was : 
* God forgive what has passed in my own cellar, 
but the statements made are true, and all true, I 
assure you.' " 

Professor Draper, of New York, two or three 
years ago made an examination of the brandy at 
some of the principal hotels on Broadway, where 
it was retailed at fifty cents a glass, and in every in- 
stance it was a mere compound of villanous poison. 
I knew a landlord whose '* brandy " was discov- 
ered to have cost him thirty-seven cents a gallon. 
I knew a druggist who paid two hundred dollars 
for a recipe to make these liquors. The liquor 
inspector of Cincinnati, a few years ago, after a 
careful examination, declared that he did not think 
there were twenty gallons of pure brandy in the 
whole city. 

If you choose to turn from brundy to beer, I 
can only commend you to the testimony given in 
the city of Albany, in the famous trial of Taylor 
against Delavan — a testimony of facts in regard to 
the manufacture of beer in that day too loathsome 
to bear a repetition in the pulpit. 

Is it not then, most amazing that we must plead, 



198 The Evils of Intemperance, 

and so often plead in vain, to prevent men from 
pouring such disgusting poison into their ^'itals? 
Do you wonder that the habitual drinkers of these 
things should put on such dreadful tokens of dis- 
ease ? Do you wonder at the bloodshot e}' e, the 
burning skin, the horrid breath, the bloated form, 
the unquenchable thirst, the staggering pace, the 
delirium, the death ? 

(U) We pass now to the meyttal evils which 
proceed from the use of alcoholic drinks. 

The immediate and inevitable effect of these 
things is to stimulate the brain. The brain be- 
ing the great instrument of the mind, whatever 
affects the brain injuriously must affect the mind 
in a similar way. In some cases, the stimulus 
creates an increased brilliancy at first, but it is a 
temporary and suicidal flash, only burning out 
swiftly into the ashes of an utter ruin. I need 
not repeat to you here the names of men, once 
renowned for intellectual magnificence, but after- 
ward degraded by strong drink to the stupidity 
and loathsomeness of a sot. Every year has its 
sad wrecks from this cause, in which the state, 
the ranks of Hterature, the legal and medical pro- 
fessions, and the pulpit mourn, in sadness and 
shame, the loss of some of their brightest orna- 
ments. The Senate of the United States has no 
loftier names upon its roll than those of some 
who in after-years went down to their graves 
beclouded or utterly ruined by intemperance 
The medical profession has seen, in its own ranks. 



The Evils of Intemperance, 199 

how powerless are the finest genius and most accu- 
rate knowledge of disease to prevent men from 
yielding to that beastly habit, whose inevitable 
end is the foulest disease and the meanest death. 
The Gospel ministry has blushed for shame as it 
witnessed some of its most distinguished preach- 
ers degraded from their high office by the drunk- 
ard's curse. It has even mourned an instance, 
only a very few years old, when one of its most 
gifted and tender messengers of grace was seduc- 
ed, by the demon of the wine-cup, to exchange the 
sacred desk for a seat on the curb-stone, with a 
drunkard's tongue belching forth obscenity and 
oaths. 

Oh ! how unspeakably painful and disgusting is 
this brutal degradation of godlike intellects 
What is more horrible in any human being than 
the vacant stare, the babbling, the nonsensical mut- 
tering, the wild and profane yells of the inebri- 
ate ? What an outrage on a being once created 
in his Maker's image ! Devils are the synonym 
of every moral evil, but devils never become drunk- 
ards. With all their depravity of heart, they keep 
the intellect clear. This vile disgrace is peculiar 
to humanity alone. 

{c) I now proceed to speak of the moral evils 
of intemperance. Vice loves to grow in clusters. 
But there is no other vice around which such 
gigantic clusters grow as intemperance. There 
is not a commandment of the Decalogue to the 
violation of which intemperance does not nat^i' 



200 The Evils of Intempei anct 

rally lead. Tr}^ them, one by one, beginning with 
the first table of duties to God. How is it in 
regard to the true love and worship of God — the 
honor of his name — the observance of his Sab- 
bath ? Does not intemperance break this table 
of the law into ten thousand pieces every week? 
Then apply it to the second table of duties to 
man, and is it not notoriously the most infamous 
patron of disrespect to parents, of murder, of 
impurity, of dishonesty, of lying, of covetousness j 
Is it not accursed by every law on the statute 
books, both of God and man — by the whole his 
tory of human crime ? 

Statistics gathered through several years, both 
m this country and elsewhere, show that not fai 
from six-sevenths of the crimes committed and 
brought to trial can be traced to the use of intoxi 
eating drinks. This does not include that vast 
world of hidden immorality which reeks with the 
fumes of drunkenness, but is not brought out 
to public view. Go to your grand-jury rooms, gc 
to criminal courts, go to county jails and state 
prisons, go to brothels, go to gibbets, and every- 
where you will be confronted with the awful fact 
that intemperance and crime go hand in hand. 

I need not carry our discussion of this matter 
up to the higher plane of Christianity. It is idle 
to speak of Jesus and his Gospel to one who is 
wedded to his cups. You might as well preach 
to a maniac as to a drunkard as long as he yields 
to his appetite. No man can possibly become a 



The Evils of Intemperance, 201 

Christian until he first becomes a sober man. A 
drunken Christian is as great an anomaly as a 
swearing Christian or a thievish Christian. 

In speaking of the personal evils of intemper- 
ance, we have now noticed the physical, mental, 
and moral aspects of the case. There is yet 
another view more terrible than all. It is : 

(</) The eternal QY\\s of intemperance. Beyond all 
the degradation and woes of the present does this 
dark curse cling to its victim. Not even when 
the bloated and burned-out body staggers into the 
grave has the end come. The drunkard's curse 
lives throughout a dark and hopeless eternity. 
** Be not deceived," says the Apostle Paul, " no 
drunkard shall in.herit the kingdom of God ; " and 
in saying so, he classifies drunkards along with 
idolaters, and adulterers, and thieves, and other 
classes of guilt and shame (i Cor. vi. 9, 10). It is 
a noticeable truth that the Holy Scriptures do 
not speak of drunkenness with that mild and senti- 
mental sympathy which is manifest so often now- 
adays. Modern humanitarians are teaching the 
world only to pity crime, not to punish it. In 
like manner, drunkenness is regarded by this class 
as almost exclusively a weakness, not a sin. But 
the Word of God uses very different language. 
There it is regarded only as a crime, which, if un- 
repented of and unforsaken, will inevitably debai 
the soul from the blessedness 'yi everlasting life. 
It is one of the abominations and defilements with 



202 The Evils of lnte7nperance. 

which no man can enter through the gate into the 
aeavenly city. 

A more brief consideration shall now be given 
to: 

II. The J^^2^/ evils of intemperance. 

If any of you were asked to name that evil 
which, more than any other, or even more than 
all others combined, had destroyed the happiness 
of families; had broken the hearts of loving wives; 
had blasted the affections, characters, and pros- 
pects of childhood ; had turned homes of cheer- 
fulness and comfort into prisons of despair ; had 
substituted rags for garments of taste ; and had 
brought every conceivable amount of cruelty on 
beings of innocence and love — what would yon 
name ? How long could you doubt ? Would not 
every man, woman, and child be compelled to 
say that, of all the curses ever inflicted on families 
and communities, there is nothing so unmitigat- 
edly hellish as intemperance ? It has turned the 
once faithful husband into a compound of beast 
and fiend ; it has nerved the hand that once gave 
the wedding-ring to deal the deadly blow ; it has 
inspired the lips that once spoke only of love to 
belch forth the foulest curses of the pit ; it has 
made children fly from a father's approach as they 
would from a devouring monster. 

One of the most horrid ughts that God looks 
down upon is a dnjnkard'^ home, and one of the 



The Evils of Intemperance. 203 

most pitiable objects in all his universe is a 
drunkard's wife. I know not what language to 
use to express the deep wretchedness of her lot. 
The most terrible punishment spoken of in an- 
tiquit}^ was that devised by Mezentius, who some- 
times put a person to death by chaining to him a 
corpse face to face, whose putrefaction should 
gradually kill the living man. I can only think 
of the drunkard's wife as chained in this way to a 
loathsome horror; chained for months and years; 
chained with no hopes of release, save that which 
the grav^e may bring to one or the other, or to 
both. 

Nor is even that hope unmixed with the saddest 
fears; for that foul corruption dies not with the 
wretched forms in which it first arose. The 
drunkard is the embodiment not only of a crime, 
but also of a disease ; and that disease \^ hereditary. 
The most careful investigation has confirmed this 
fact. Physicians testify that " diseases from drink- 
ing spirituous or fermented liquors arc liable to 
become hereditarj^ to the third generation, gradu- 
ally increasing, if the cause be continued, until 
the family becomes extinct." Children of drunk- 
ards come into the world with the disease of in- 
temperance in their blood, and the marks of it on 
thejr vitals. They have been subjected to the 
most careful examination after death. Dissection 
and the microscope have revealed precisely the 
same marks of disease in them as in the confirmed 



204 '^^^ Evils of Intemperance. 

inebriate. Dr. Riggs, of London, once stated that 
*' one-half of the deaths among children in that city 
was produced by hereditar}^ inebriety." 

And what is the case of the children who do 
not die? Their physical systems are in the same 
morbid state as that of a reformed drunkard. 
They may grow up and get along well enough if 
they entirely abstain. But let them beware how 
they touch the first drop ! There is a latent ap- 
petite in them, like the love of blood in the young 
lion, which the first sip will make ravenous. This 
explains why so often the children of inebriates 
become inebriates themselves, and that so sud- 
denly. It is not merely the force of example, but 
the development of hereditar}^ thirst, which only 
awaited the occasion of a beginning to spring at 
once into a full-grown habit. 

Nor is it only in this form that the disease is 
transmitted from parent to child, but the delirium 
tremens, or mental decay, or even temporary in- 
toxication of the parent, often leads to the insanity 
or idiocy of the child. It is said that this cause 
produces fort}^ per cent, of all insanity, and fifty 
per cent, of all idiocy. 

What a heritage is this to transmit from genera- 
tion to generation ; sometimes overleaping the 
one immediatel}' succeeding and striking on the 
third ! What a demon of the blood and of the 
brain must intemperance be, thus to poison the 
sweet current of life both in the body and the 



The Evils of Inie7nperance. 205 

soul ! How emphatic the inspired declaration : 
" Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and 
whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." 

III. I promised to say something of the evils 
of intemperance in its civil relations, or the evils 
which it inflicts on the state. 

In no other form of government ought the 
purity of the state to be a matter of such anxious 
interest as in a republic like ours. Whatever 
touches the honesty of the ballot-box or the 
moral integrity of our halls of legislation ought 
to be watched by every patriot as the brave and 
sleepless sentinel watches the slightest token of 
an enemy's approach. Each of these should be 
regarded by freemen as almost as sacred as the 
Sanctuary of the Most High. Yet how has the 
demon of intemperance disgraced the legislative 
halls of our land, both state and national ! What 
deeds of shame have gathered round our ballot- 
boxes ! The fearful testimony which comes to us 
from every quarter is that intoxicating liquors, 
in the interest of their manufacture, traffic, and 
use, and in the legislation which they seek, are 
among the most powerful controllers of our elec- 
tions. The result of all this is that the great ma- 
jority of our public men are not sincere friends 
of total abstinence. Some of them are as far 
from that 

" As from the centre thrice to the utmost pol£." 

Jefferson is reported to have said that " no man 



2o6 The Evils of Inteinperance, 

ought to be trusted with office who drank." If 
that rule were strictly applied to many a legisla- 
tive body, there would not be a quorum left. 

The matter of taxes comes up sometimes for 
discussion in connection with the subject of intox- 
icating drinks. Various tables jf statistics, com- 
piled before the war, agreed in the general fact 
that about two-thirds of ordinary county taxes 
went for pauperism and crime, and of that pau- 
perism and crime six-sevenths were produced by 
intemperance. This would show that about four- 
sevenths of ordinary taxes, before the war, were 
exacted by alcoholic drinks. These tables of 
statistics are, of course, not absolutely exact. 
With the utmost care, they can only be approxi- 
mations to the truth. Yet, gathered as they were 
in different years, and in places far remote from 
each other, they present a very significant agree- 
ment in the result to which they come. We need, 
however, -no precise details. We need only look 
at our poor-houses, and court-houses, and jails — 
at the long list of officials, from pohceman to 
judge, whose chief concern is the prevention and 
punishment of crimes growing oitt of intemper- 
ance, to satisfy even the most incredulous how 
outrageous is the extortion which strong drink is 
exacting from the taxpayers of the land. 

But 1 am not willing to dwell upon this aspect 
of the case. The great question before us rises 
infinitely above the measurement of dollars and 
cents in our tax bills. So far as the state is con- 



The Evils of Intemperance, 207 

cerned, even if there were no taxes connected 
with this vice ; if it was a source of princely rev- 
enue ; if every drunkard's corpse could be trans- 
muted into solid gold, and every dram-shop was a 
public mint ; if the whole cost of liquor in the 
United States (six hundred millions of dollars a 
year) could be poured directly into the national 
Treasury to pay the public debt — even then the 
state could not afford to encourage habits of in- 
toxication. No amount of gold and silver can be 
weighed against the loss of public virtue. The 
question of morals, of happiness, of present and 
eternal welfare, cannot be ciphered out in tables 
of currency or coin. No state can possibly be- 
come so rich but that, if intemperance generally 
prevails among its citizens and rulers, every true 
patriot may well repeat, with anxious heart, the 
dying words of the great William of Orange; 
" God have mercy on my poor country !" 

In the course which I have taken to-day, you 
perceive I have limited your view to a single fea- 
ture of the subject of intemperance, viz., its evils. 
I have endeavored to give you, as far as I could, 
reliable facts and statements. I have felt that 
such a course was necessary for ever}^ one who 
desired to know on what basis a strong, reason- 
able, and Christian opposition against intemper. 
ance may be impregnably established. 

And now I feel warranted in asking you, ever^ 
man, woman, and child : 



2o8 The Evils of Intemperance, 

Is it right, or is it wrong, to be the patron of in- 
toxicating drink as a beverage ? 

Is it right, or is it wrong, to encourage the traffic 
in it ? 

Is it right, or is it wrong, to put the bottle to a 
neighbor's lips ? 

Is it right, or is it wrong, to set an example, even 
in a *' moderate" or fashionable way, by which a 
weaker brother or a child may be ensnared and 
ultimately ruined ? 

These are questions of practical morals which I 
imagine not a single judgment or conscience 
now present will have any difficulty in answering. 

Now, on the other hand, let me ask a few ques- 
tions of general fact. How does the community 
practically regard this thing? Is it not under the 
ban of public opinion? Does not the law crush 
it? Does not philanthropy exterminate it? Do 
not young and old fly from it ? Is it not quaran- 
tined like a ship loaded with pestilence ? Do not 
men walk far away around it as they do from a 
yellow-fever district ? 

What is the answer to these questions? The 
answer is that the horrible monster is caressed 
and pampered to an extent like this : " There is 
a sufficient quantity of fermented and distilled 
liquor used in the United States to fill a canal 
four feet deep, fourteen feet wide, and one hun- 
dred and twenty miles in length" [Nat. Temp. 
Almanac y 1870). The National Beer Congress, at 



The Evils of Iniejnperance. 209 

its session in Newark, N. J., June, 1869, estimated 
the amount of beer manufactured in the United 
States at over five and a half millions of barrels, 
and the capital employed, directly and indirectly, 
at one hundred and five millions of dollars 
($105,000,000). The lowest estimate of actual cost 
ot spirituous and fermented liquors consumed in 
the United States annually is six hundred millions 
of dollars ($600,000,000). This is an annual ex- 
penditure equal to one-quarter the amount of our 
present national debt, or nearly two millions per 
day. Some of this, we know, is used for chemical 
and mechanical purposes, but the greater part is 
the deadly drink of infatuated human beings. 

And what is the fruit of all this ? What a har- 
vest of drunkenness and death ! It is estimated 
that sixty thousand go down to drunkards' graves 
every year. These represent a quarter of a mil- 
lion of wives and mothers, and sisters and chil- 
dren, overwhelmed with shame, sorrow, and often 
poverty, by the untimely ruin of husbands, fa- 
thers, brothers, and sons. 

But where, my young friends, does this vast 
evil begin ? Always m the first glass. Always in 
the " moderate use." Always in the hollow soph- 
istry that temperance does not mean total absti- 
nence. Always in the vain confidence of being 
abte to control the appetite and to stop just at the 
proper time. Of the sixty thousand drunkards 
who die every year, probably not one expected 
to come to that end. But the mighty deceitful- 



2!0 The Evils of Intemperance. 

ness of that deadly appetite sweeps its victim into 
helplessness and ruin before he is aware. It was 
onlj' in the past week that we read the telegram 
of three men who were drawn into the rapids of 
Niagara. They expected, of course, to cross the 
stream in safety, but the current soon became too 
strong. Their oars were too feeble for the tide. 
Their boat was tossed and broken in the rapids. 
Two of the men sank quickty. The third, being 
an expert swimmer, tried to reach a little island 
in the stream. He came within six feet of it, but 
the rushing waters swept him past. In despair, 
he threw his arms upward and sank. It is the 
picture of daily scenes on the mad stream of in- 
temperance. So they venture out ; so they are 
swept away ; so the most of them sink in speedy 
ruin ; so here and there a resolute one makes a 
desperate effort to save himself, and almost suc- 
ceeds ; but the infernal tide is more than a match 
for his exhausted powers ; he abandons the effort 
in despair, and sinks into eternal death. Your 
safety, my young friends, is to let that dangerous 
indulgence alone. What is fashion to you .'* What 
the bantering of reckless comrades? What even 
the invitation of female beauty, if it would entice 
you into the drunkard's path ? In that sparkling 
wine-glass there is an adder, and, if you trifle with 
it, it will sting you unto death even as it has stung 
millions. Then, when the hopes and promises of 
your life shall all have been blasted, your habits 
ruined, your character destroyed — when we shall 



The Evils of Iiitempstrance 211 

have carried your poor, besotted corpse to the 
grave, what will it then avail that once foolish 
companions encouraged 3^ou ? — once even thought- 
less woman asked you to indulge the demon 
which every day makes ten thousand broken- 
hearted women weep? 

God grant you grace, my young friends, when- 
ever tempted to taste the intoxicating beverage, 
to say : In the name of health — in the name of 
wealth — in the name of friends — in the name of 
honor — in the name of virtue — in the name of ex- 
ample — in the name of everything I hold dear 
in this world — in the name of my immortal soul — 
in the name of heaven — in the name of God — • 
No! 



Liberty and Love. 



I MUST express my great sorrow that there is 
so large a division of sentiment on the subject 
of temperance, and that this division of sentiment 
is inclined, in many parts of our land, to take on 
so acrimonious a form as it does. There are hun- 
dreds and thousands of men who not only are 
themselves temperate, but are anxious to spread 
temperance principles and practices throughout 
the community ; but they differ as to the measures 
which it is best to employ. 

Some men differ as to the number of elements 
that are to be included. There be many who 
say that all alcoholic and distilled liquors should 
be excluded, but that vinous and fermented liquors 
should not. There are others who say that these 
last should be included in the exclusion. But 
there are still others who say that tobacco ought 
to be excluded. And there are others yet who 
say that you ought to exclude all intoxicating 
drinks and narcotic stimulants — tea and coffee as 
well as the others. Still others say that you 
ought to go on to vegetable diet strictly, and not 
take away the life of any creature. It is held 
by some that there can be no true temperance 



214 Liberty and Love. 

until men become farinaceous. I do not propose 
to discuss any of these questions. 

Then, there is a division of men in respect to 
the measures which should be taken to promote 
temperance. Some people think that the cause 
ought to be carried forward by the churches 
alone, and that there should be no temperance 
societies. Others think that the work ought to 
be done by temperance societies simply. Others 
again think that there ought to be temperance 
laws — license laws. Still others think that there 
ought to be laws which shouH preclude the manu- 
facture and sale of intoxicating drinks. Besides 
these, there are thousands who think that moral 
suasion is the only influence that should be resort- 
ed to in this matter. There is a great conflict of 
judgment among men on this subject. 

Now, in regard to it all, it is a great misfortune 
that there should be this division of opinion ; and 
it is a still greater misfortune that this division of 
opinion should lead to uncharitable judgments, 
and to the want of faith of man in man. A high- 
toned temperance man — a man who, as it is said. 
**.goesthe w^hole figure," and wants to sweep away 
by legislation the evils of intemperance — is apt to 
look with contempt upon the man who, although 
he is abstinent, says: " I think we had better be 
moderate, and not undertake an}' more than we 
can carry out, doing what we can for temperance 
by quietly talking in our own neighborhood." 
And I see that in an adjoining State there is a 



Liberty and Love. 215 

painful feeling of acrimony existing among men 
who are avowed friends of the temperance cause. 

I affirm the right of a man to form his own 
judgment about these things, and to stand by thac 
judgment without detriment or harm. You have 
no right to take away a man's reputation for tem- 
perance principles simply because he does not 
come on to your platform, nor adopt your mea- 
sures. You have a right to your views, and you 
have a right to advocate them ; and nobody has 
a right to take away your peace, or comfort, or 
good name because you do not agree with him. 

Discord of views prevails also as to the use of 
distilled and fermented drinks. First, I affirm and 
defend the liberty of men to form their own judg- 
ments, and thereby their own consciences, as to 
what is right and expedient in this particular. If 
a man says : " 1 have carefully read every treatise, 
and I have considered deliberately all the argu- 
ments for and against absolute temperance, and it 
is my sober judgment that the use of mild wines is 
especially favorable to health and to temperance, 
I say two things to him : " First, I differ with 
you ; but, secondly, I recognize your right to form 
your judgment on that ground as much as I re- 
cognize my own right to form my judgment on 
that ground. I am not of your way of think- 
ing, and I wish that you did not think as you 
do; but you are an honest man, and I defend 
your liberty of judgment and your liberty of con- 
science." You have a right to judge his conclu- 



2l6 Liberty and Love. 

sions; but you have no right to judge his consci 
ence. You have a right, as much as you please, 
to multiply arguments, and views, and statements, 
so as to induce him, if possible, to change his 
judgment ; but so long as his judgment is not 
changed, he must be allowed to stand upon it; and 
he must be counted no less honorable in standing 
on his judgment than you are in standing on yours. 
Are not these men who differ from you as honest 
as you are ? Are they not as sincere as you are ? 
Are they not as conscientious as you are ? Who 
a7't thou, then, that judge st another mans servant ? 
To his own master he shall stand or fall. 

But now, on the other hand, while I boldly and 
clearly affirm the liberty of men on this subject, I 
have a right, most solemnly and earnestly, to ap- 
peal to all right-thinking men as to whether they 
use their liberty charitably or not. The Apostle 
puts this argument very distinctly : Use yo7ir 
liberty charitably, amiably, according to the law of 
love. Your rights are yours ; but they are not 
yours for a selfish purpose. Your personal right 
or liberty is to be administered under the great 
charter of love. And I have a right to ask every 
man to consider attentively this whole matter of 
temperance in the community in which he lives, 
and in the day in which he lives. 

I ask, first, Is there any other single source from 
which comes so much danger or so much dis- 
tress as from the drinking habits of society ? Is 
not intemperance the paramount mischief, as well 



Liberty and Love. 217 

as the fountain of almost all the other mischiefs 
which exist among us ? Does it not stimulate the 
worst part of men ? Does it not lead to an im- 
mense variety of vices ? Your own observation 
of what is taking- place in society at large, and the 
vast accumulation of statistics and facts such as 
we ordinarily find in temperance documents, must, 
it seems to me, have convinced you that the evils 
with which we have to contend in the community 
may be mainly traced to this cause. I ask every 
young man here, and every man of any consider- 
able experience, if he does not know thousands, 
or if not thousands hundreds, or if not hundreds 
scores, certainly, of cases of overtaxed business 
men in our large cities, who have run ^"hemselves 
into absolute ruin by the habit of using intoxicat- 
ing drinks to keep up their strength and their 
fire ? Has there not been a vein of mischief of this 
sort running through the business community ? 
Have you not seen it ? Have you not known men 
that were discouraged, and badgered, and pressed 
in their business, who, for the sake of abating 
their suffering, have taken away the keen vitality 
of their life by resorting to the cup ? And has not 
the habit thus formed finally led to their downfall? 
Is not this going on all the time? Are there not 
hundreds and thousands of cases, almost in our 
very midst, of persons who have in some such 
way become victims of this terrible scourge ? 

If a ship comes into the harbor with cases oi 
yellow fever on board, there is a great clamor, 



2i8 Liberty and Love. 

and we expect that the ship will be stopped, and 
that the quarantine officers will do their duty, and 
prevent the infection from spreading to the ad- 
jacent shores. And if through any neglect on the 
part of these officers there are cases on shore, 
everybody in the city is up in arms about it. 

Now, I tell you that there are, to-day, hundreds 
and thousands of persons in our midst who are in- 
fected with this terrific fever of drink. Their 
neighbors know it ; their partners know it ; you 
and I know it. It is a matter of common observa- 
tion. Almost any one of us could put down the 
names of scores of these men. The habit of in- 
dulging in intoxicating drinks is eating out the 
lives of multitudes of otherwise worthy and most 
desirable citizens. Especially is this the case in 
New York, where this evil is aggravated by the 
conformation of the city. The island being long 
and narrow, men's business is thrown far from 
their residences, and they are compelled to resort 
to restaurants for their noon meal. And here 
they are brought under bewitching temptations 
to drink. I think the restaurant system may have 
laid to its credit more temptation to drink than 
any other circumstance. Men go into restaurants 
where liquor is kept for sale. One man opens a 
bottle of claret, and another man thinks he must. 
If one is invited by a friend to drink, he does not 
like to refuse, and he feels under obligation to re- 
turn the compliment. And the scruple which he 
has against drinking gradually wears off. He 



Liberty and Love, 2ig 

does not know how, but little by little he slides 
into the habit of drinking. At length he loses tl:7€ 
repulsion from it which he experienced at first. 
And, finally, he finds himself regularly indulging, 
from day to day, in drinking — not as medicine, 
but as a matter of luxury or enjoyment. And 
how many men, beginning so, find, after months 
or years, that the necessity of indulgence has 
grown on them, or that a latent tendency in that 
direction has been fired in them, so that they can- 
not get over it ! How many are thus led to pur- 
sue the drinking customs of society through the 
influence of restaurants in New York ! Myriads 
of young men who are full of blood, and full of 
fire, and full of imitation, are led into intemperance 
by the example which is set before them in these 
places by their elders. 

I have been informed that there is an mimense 
mcrease in the drinking habits of what are called 
respectable young men in these cities. I am told 
that, quite generally, when an enterpris*j is taken in 
hand, they step out to drink ; that when they have 
a fortunate stroke of business, they step out to 
drink ; that they drink when they are going over 
to business, and drink when they are coming back. 
There is undoubtedly a great deal more drinking 
than there used to be. And it means business. 
It is not altogether drinking from courtesy, or 
from compliance : it is drinking deep and drinking 
often for a purpose. And this excessive drinking 
is accompanied by manifest and growing effects 



/ 

/ 



220 Liberty and Love. 

upon these young men. And, from excitability; 
from compliance with social customs, from the 
example of the fashionable classes, from the 
facility with which men are enabled by this means 
to reach the feelings of their fellow-men, and from 
a hundred other considerations, the drinking ten- 
dencies of society are increasing. And there is 
no other thing that so takes down the health, and 
blunts the conscience, and deadens the sensibility, 
and prematurely prepares the young for disease 
and suffering and disgraceful death, carrying 
terrible blight to the household, and immeasur- 
able woe to many souls, as this very practice of 
drinking for luxury and for diet. 

Now, I appeal to Christian men, I appeal to 
moral, right-thinking citizens, is there any just 
end to be gained that should lead you to per- 
sist in drinking? Have I not said that, ab- 
stractly considered, you have a right to form, 
your own judgment in this matter? And now, 
having guarded your liberty, I ask you, was there 
ever a case where a man might better bring his 
liberty to the altar of love and humanity ? Was 
there ever a case which more strongly appealed 
to a man in this direction than this very one? 
Was there ever an instance in which a man might 
more appropriately say : If meat and drink make 
my brother to offend, I zvill eat no flesh and drink 7io 
wine while the world standeth ? 

Have you a right, for the sake of the indulgence 
of your own pleasure, which is momentary and 



Liberty and Love. 221 

transient, to set such an example, and to lend the 
whole force of your personal influence in such a 
way as will lead young men into a habit which 
will be to them damnation? Though you may 
be cold and conservati\ e, and though you may be 
so far advanced in life that you can indulge 
moderately in the use of intoxicating drinks 
without being drawn into excessive indulgence, 
have you any right, either for pleasure or profit, 
to throw the pall of your example over young 
men, and solicit them, and ratify their erratic 
desires? I appeal to you because, though you 
have a right to your own opinions in this matter, 
and though 1 accord to you that right, I believe 
that you have at heart the welfare of the young, 
and that- if it were made plain to you that a 
little sacrifice of personal indulgence on your part 
would be the salvation of scores and hundreds 
of men, you would make the sacrifice. And was 
there ever a case where a man might use his 
liberty for the welfare of others, if this be not 
one ? 

I appeal to all men to avoid setting an example 
of drinking at public dinners or in any public 
places. You ma}^ say : '* If am going to drink at 
all, I will drink openly." No, no, no! That is 
not right. If your physician says you must drink, 
I say about drinking as the Apostle said about 
faith — " Have it to thyself." And when you 
attend a New England dinner, or a Historical 
Society dinner, or a Geographical Society dinner, 



222 Liberty and Love, 

or any great dinner, do not drink. There are 
very itw men who could sit at the head of the 
table on such an occasion, as I saw one of the 
chief and most honored poets of America sit, and 
press away the glasses, and say to the servants as 
they came round : " No7ie, noneT That venerable 
man, as he sat there, quiet and unostentatious, 
was reading a lesson which, I am afraid, but few 
understood. As I recollect it, it was a noble 
testimony and a noble example. And I would 
say to every man who will allow himself to be 
influenced by my persuasion : 1 beg of you, in 
hotels, in restaurants, at public dinners, in public 
places everywhere, even if you thmk you have 
impunity in the matter of drinkmg yourself, /<?;'- 
bear. Do somethmg for the good cause. Do 
something that will help men. We need an exam- 
ple ; and you do not know how many eyes may be 
looking upon you. You do not know how many 
men, if you lift your hand with the cup, will Hft 
theirs, and perish. 

May I not urge parents to consider the ef- 
fect upon their children of the use at home, as 
a luxury, of intoxicating drinks ? I do not say 
that a parent shall never drink wine ; but it does 
seem to me that it is wise to have an emphatic 
understanding in the household on this subject. 
It seems to me that parents, bringing up theii 
children in the midst of the perils of this day and 
community, might emphasize their example on 
the subject of temperance at their tables. I have 



Liberty and Love. 223 

known good men to pour out wine and give it to 
their boys, because, as they said,, they would not 
take anything that their boys might not take. 
That is a reason why you should not take wine 
yourself, but it is not a reason why you should 
give it to then:. And for the sake of the sanctity 
of the household in this day and in this countr}*, 
1 beseech you to think well about this matter. 
And if with your conscience you have gone over 
the ground, may I not ask you to go over it again? 
May I not ask you, as in the presence of God and 
with the solemnities of the eternal sphere upon you, 
to carefully consider the subject once more, and 
ask yourself whether you ought not to exclude 
wine from your board ? May I not say to every 
one who calls in his friends, and hospitably spreads 
his table, and opens his saloons : You may be able 
to stand ; but is your conscience or your strength 
to neglect the weak, the tempted, and the tempt- 
able ? Ought you not to have a consideration for 
those whose consciences come under your influ- 
ence ? 

There is nothing more pamful to me than to see 
how beauty, and politeness, and courtesy seduce. 
A young man comes to the city from the country. 
It is a great thing for a young man who has been 
brought up in a village to come to New York. 
He is occupying a humble position as clerk in a 
store. He is a young man of promise ; and this 
fact does not escape his employer's attention. He 
has b.een there two )^ears, and has improved in 



224 Liberty and Lov€. 

many respects. He is dressing better; he has 

dropped off his uncouth manners ; he has many 
marks of courtesy about him ; he has savoir faire, 
and many other virtues, and his employer is 
pleased with him ; and on going home some 
night he says to his wife : " I think Thomas is 
very promising ; he is turning out finely. And 1 
do not know as it would do any hurt, now that we 
are going to have these little parties, and as our 
girls would like some beaux, to ask him over. I 
believe there is the making of a man in him, and 
nobody can tell what may happen." 

He is asked over, and he feels that it is a great 
compliment. When he came to the city he did not 
know what was before him, but fortune seems to 
have smiled upon him. He has had pretty hard 
work, but he has browbeaten and overcome a 
great man}^ difficulties, and things are now going 
more smoothly with him. And in his exultation 
he says : " I have got it in me, and I am going to 
succeed." And then comes this sweet invitation 
from his employer — one of the first men in the 
community — a man who stands among the very 
highest in business circles. And this young man 
who has been brought up with a religious horror 
of drinking, and who has been able to resist all 
the temptation which has been brought to bear 
upon him in restaurants, in drinking-saloons, and 
among his companions, goes to the hospitable 
mansion of his employer, and there in a side-room 
b a i)Qwl of champagne punch (J believe that is 



Liberty and Love. 225 

what they call it), or something of the kind ; and 
all the other young men go in there to brace 
themselves up and get ready to be brilliant. It is 
the custom of the house, and his companions say : 
" You are not going to take on airs in this way. 
Besides, you are not going to insult the man in his 
own house, and tell him that he had no business to 
put that bowl there." And in an ill-advised mo- 
ment this heretofore religiously temperate young 
man yields, and drinks the first cup. 

Now, 1 do not say that that first cup is going to 
destroy him ; but I do say that he has been griev- 
ously wounded. That cup may be of little con- 
sequence ; but if a young man consents to do 
what his conscience tells him he has no business 
to do, he has taken the first of a series of steps 
downward. When a man begins to act contrary 
to his moral convictions, his power to follow those 
convictions in the midst of temptation is material- 
ly weakened. And when you, by your example 
in the household or elsewhere, lead a man to do 
that which his conscience condemns, you have 
done him an injury from which he can never 
wholly recover. So take care that you do not 
destroy men by your example. 

1 beseech of you who are lookmg forward to the 
approaching festive season of the holidays — Christ- 
mas and New Year's Day — to take high ground 
on this subject of temperance. I make my annual 
solemn and affectionate appeal to every young man 
m this congregation, to maintain a conscience 
void of offence. If your conscience says that 



226 Liberty and Love^ 

drinking is bad, and ought not to be allowed, 
stand by your principles, no matter if you be 
tempted by an angel of light, with a devil in him. 

1 make my appeal, also, to every young wo- 
man. Since drunkenness comes first and hardest 
upon woman, since it is to her what a swine is to 
a garden, rooting up every sweet blossom, and 
destroying every fruit, and making a wilderness 
of the garden of the Lord, I have a right to say to 
every young woman : By your look, by your 
word, and by your act, bear testimony and exert 
your influence against intemperance. Let not 
your fair hand, that 3'et one day shall go out in 
pledge, convey to another that cup which shall 
desolate and destroy the household. If there be 
one thing that woman should stand for, it is tem- 
perance. 

I beseech of you who are hospitably disposed, 
whatever have been vour old customs, your Old 
World customs, or your old country customs, 
think this matter over again. Men, brethren, 
fathers, you who have never thought of taking 
this ground, am 1 imreasonable? Have I not put 
your liberty on the right ground, and defended it ? 
and am I wrong in begging you to use that liber- 
ty so as not to destroy men with it? May I not 
beg of you now, man}^ of you, before you leave 
this house, to say : " By the help of God I will use 
my reason, I will use m}^ conscience, I will use 
my money, I will use my house, 1 will use m}' 
table, so as to make sure that no man shall stum- 
ble upon my example and end in destruction " ? 



Strange Children. 



** Rid me, md deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose motttll 
•peaketh vaaity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood : that our 
sons may be as plants grown up in their youth ; that our daughters may be 
Rs corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace."— Psalm cxliv. ii 



THE strange children in David's time were 
the idolatrous heathen. Their influence 
upon the chosen people was most pernicious. 
Not only was their conversation vapid, but their 
actions were deceitful. In token of friendship 
they stretched forth the right hand, but the salu- 
tation was insincere and the heart treacherous. 

To turn from such a deceptive race was a duty 
solemnly enjoined upon those in covenant with 
Jehovah. To avoid them would be the first im- 
pulse of wisdom, for their influence could not but 
prove baneful, especially on the susceptible minds 
of the young and unwary. And while, in ac- 
cordance with divine command and human reason, 
the king was endeavoring to exterminate these 
strange and wicked heathen, it was highly proper 
for him to direct his prayer to the Almighty, and 



250 Strange Children. 

entreat him to afford the much-desired deliver- 
ance. 

Could this result be accomplished — could these 
unhallowed children of Satan be removed, and 
their corrupt mfluences stayed, what a happy 
people would Israel be with Jehovah for th^ir 
God ! Not only would they be blest with full and 
plenty, but their sons would be " as plants grown 
up in their youth " — springing up numerously 
and coming to early and beautiful maturity — the 
support of the land ; and their daughters would 
be '' as corner-stones polished after the similitude 
of a palace" — like the caryatides, or columns 
representing female figures, elegantly sculptured, 
and placed on the corners of noble edifices by 
Egyptian architects, the pride and glory as well 
as the support of the temple of state. 

Time has wrought great changes since David 
sat on the throne of Israel. The Holy Land has 
long been desecrated by the tread and rule of in- 
fidelity and heathenism ; and the once holy peo- 
ple, having rejected Messiah, have lost the divine 
favor, and, scattered over the wide world, have 
become a hissing and a by-word to their fellow- 
men. They in turn are now the strange children 
— strange in their stubborn rejection of hol}^ truth 
and in their alienation from the God of their 
fathers. 

The partition wall once excluding the Gentiles 
IS now demolished, and " the chosen of the Lord " 
may be found in every land and among every 



Strange Children, 251 

people. And where are they congregated in 
greater number and influence than here ? Rescued 
from foreign oppression and domestic treason ; 
a free and independent people, with wise rulers 
and an equitable government; better than all be- 
side, having in our custody the oracles of God, 
the institutions of the church, and enjoying the 
influences of the Spirit and all the means of grace 
in great profusion — certainly we people of these 
United States, while we do not claim the exclu- 
sive blessing, may regard ourselves as among the 
most favored, and believe that God speaks to us 
from his high abode, saying, *' This people have I 
formed for myself; they shall show forth my 
praise." 

I need not tell you there are among us also 
'■^strange cJiildren'' — ^'' men of Belial^' ^^ whose 
mouth speaketh vanity^ and whose right Jiand is a right 
hand of falsehood'' ; who are corrupt themselves, 
and secretly conveying their vile influence into 
the minds of our youth, thereby undermining the 
foundations of holy truth, and threatening us with 
general demoralization and material ruin. Against 
every such endeavor we should contend with all our 
might ; and, while we labor, we should appeal to 
our God, and cry out earnestly, '• Rid and deliver 
us.'' This is the duty of patriotism, philan- 
thropy, and religion. It is more: it is the die- 
tate of self-interest, if not self-preservation. 
Upon this watchfulness, efibrt, and prayer de- 
pends not only the welfare of the community and 



252 Strange Children. 

republic, but also the character, condition, and 
future prospects of our children, and, as a conse- 
quence, our own comfort, the glory of God, and 
the good of countless souls. 

Concerning the corrupt politicians of both par- 
ties, the gamblers, the profane swearers, the swin- 
dlers, and many other strange children who infest 
our land, we may not now particularh^ speak. But 
there is one monster sin, alarmingly prevalent, to 
which we wish to call your attention. Inteinper- 
afice is spreading desolation everywhere. There 
is hardly a community or a family free from its 
terrible ravages. Like the horse- leech, it drives 
its fangs into the flesh of every victim it can 
reach, and with insatiate thirst cries out more 
greedily than ever, '* Give ! give ! " More than 
any other vice it impedes the progress of piety. 
It opens the way to every species of crime, and 
leads down to infamy and death. 

This is an old and threadbare subject, yet it 
constantly presents new phases and illustrations, 
and is, therefore, fearfully interesting as well as 
vitally important. There is just one thing for us 
to do with this evil. We must fight it, as we do 
that old deceiver, Satan, to the bitter end. We 
must contend with the demon of the bottle in 
every form, giving him no quarter, and driving 
him absolutely from our coasts. Nor can we 
admit this is only a social or a political evil, and, 
therefore, should be corrected only by the press 
or the platform or the ballot. It is a sin. Drunk- 



Strange Children. 253 

eiiness, and whatever leads to it, is a sin. They 
who become intoxicated commit a crime against 
God and the state, and it requires no profound 
argument to prove to any reasonable person that 
they who, in any way, by example, or persuasion, 
or traffic, induce others to indulge their wicked 
appetites, are also guilty. 

Just look at the folly and criminality of some 
people who claim to be models of morality and 
piety. They know the tendency of appetite. 
They behold how the love for strong drink usu- 
ally increases until the occasional sip becomes a 
regular beverage, and the small glass is ex- 
changed for the large goblet ; until the taste be- 
comes a draught, and the draught a flood ; until 
the tippler is transformed into a toper, and the 
toper into a sot. They see the poor victim little 
by little drawn into the net of the destroyer 
rhey stand upon the shore of this Niagara with 
folded arms, watching the boatman gliding down 
the current, pulling away lustily at the oars. 
And thus they gaze until at length, with demon 
yells, he cries out, **Too late! too late ! my soul 
is lost," and then leaps over the cataract into the 
3^awning abyss. And yet, strange to say, while 
this fearful tragedy is repeated in this country 
two hundred times every day and oftentimes hap- 
pens before their eyes, there are peole who apolo- 
gize for the custom of drinking; \yho claim it is 
a good thing, and should be perpetuated ; who 
battle the advocates of total abstinence as if they 



254 Strange Children. 

were either knaves or fools ; who g-o on drinking 
and selling, risking their own souls and the souls 
of their children and friends, and helping bj their 
influence, directly or indirectly, to fill earth with 
drunkenness and hell with victims. 

Ancestral education may influence these 
" strange children " ; but appetite and covetous- 
ness have more weight with them. The love of 
spirituous liquor and the craving for money, 
these are the potent causes of intemperance, and 
never did the devil discover better agencies than 
these for the accomplishment of his diabolical 
purposes. 

What can be done to arrest this evil and pre- 
vent its future ravages ? This is a great question, 
which we propose to consider and, if possible, 
answer. He is a skilful practitioner who can 
make a good diagnosis; but he does better who 
prescribes a successful remedy. 

Much has been said and much been done in re- 
gard to this matter in the ages past, and especially 
within the last thirty or forty years. The friends 
of temperance should not be discouraged, or for a 
moment slacken their efforts. Their labors have 
not been in vain. 

Yet it is evident we have made but little head- 
way. With all our preaching and lecturing ; in con- 
nection with all our organizations, local and nation- 
al; by our moral suasion and our legislation, what 
have we accomplished ? The most we can say is, 
we have sta^x^d the flood, and prevented it from 



Strange Children. 255 

osrerwhelming us. We have not as yet been able to 
turn the tide up-stream, and force the flood back- 
ward. While we have been working, the enemv 
has not been idle. Satan has been more cunning 
and ardent than ever. He has stirred up opposi- 
tion where it should never have been manifested. 
He has arrayed against this movement to save 
men from drunkenness a part of the church, and 
put his false arguments in the mouths of those 
who love Jesus. He has produced controversies 
and divisions and diversions in the temperance 
ranks. He has inflamed the lovers of strong 
drink with an increased appetite, and he has stim- 
ulated the guilty vendors to a greater thirst for 
gain. He has taught his willing and skilful agents 
how to drug their liquors, so as to cheat their silly 
customers out of their money and sobriety in the 
quickest manner possible, and send them most 
directly and rapidly down to infamy and ruin. 
And when sober, thoughtful people have ven- 
tured to dispute his influence, he has met them 
with intrigue and ridicule and falsehood and 
threats. Temperance reformers and advocates 
have been obliged to contend against prejudice, 
appetite, moneyed interest, and all this backed up 
by diabolical machination. What wonder they 
have succeeded no better ! 

It is a matter of surprise and congratulation 
that they have stood their ground so well, and ac- 
complished so much. Had it not been for their 
zealous efforts, instead of an army of 600,000 



256 Strange Children. 

drunkards which now reel around our streets, no 
doubt the victims of intemperance might be 
counted in this countr}^ by millions. The cause 
has had some degree of success. 

But we believe a brighter day is dawning upon us. 
The legions of the enemy have been kept in abey- 
ance ; but now comes the cry of victory. Already 
we hail the final triumph of truth and righteous- 
ness, although it may be afar off. God's people are 
coming to the rescue, and like Cromwell's troops 
they go into the battle with the Word of God in 
their hands and the voice of prayer upon their 
lips. We shall prevail, for God is our Leader, 
and the success of our cause is promotive of his 
glory. 

But, fellow-workmen, we must toil on, and 
from our past defeats learn useful lessons. One 
grand mistake which has been made by temper- 
ance reformers is, they have attempted to breast 
the river at its mouth, rather than at its source. 
In preaching and lecturing, they have addressed 
themselves almost exclusively to inebriates and 
moderate drinkers of mature minds and fixed 
habits. Would it not be better to begin with the 
children, who are easily influenced, and educate 
them to total abstinence principles ? A speaker 
once asked a company of boys whether they had 
ever thought, if they never tasted intoxicating 
liquors, they could never become drunkards. 
One little fellow, in the simplicity of his heart, re- 
plied, " No'' And it really seems as if the mass 



Stranze Children. 257 



of well-meaning, Christian people are like that 
child — they do not recognize the plain truth, that 
if their children never taste the poison, they can 
never be ruined by it. 

Temperance friends, we need not retrace our 
footsteps. Our path is in the right direction. It is 
not required that we change our tactics. They 
are reasonable and effective. It is only requisite 
that we add to our plans and efforts. The vilest 
sot is still a man, our fellow-man; and while there 
is breath in his foul body, we should labor and 
pray to reclaim him to sobriety and holiness. 
The man or woman who indulges only moderately 
in the dangerous drink, we should warn, persuade, 
and by every proper influence try to save from 
destruction. Let inebriate asylums be multiplied. 
God be praised for what has been accomplished 
by medical treatment and careful nursing ! Let 
philanthropy do her best to ameliorate the sin and 
suffering which exist on account of indulgence in 
strong drink. Let us enforce the laws now on the 
statute-book with reference to this unhallowed 
traffic, and increase their stringency. Let us 
steadily, judiciously work for a prohibitory law. 
The poor drunkard himself clamors for it when he 
is in his sober senses. It is puerile to say it is 
unconstitutional and unreasonable. As well say 
a law against arson or burglary, or the free sale 
of strychnine or laudanum, is unconstitutional. 
With equal reason it might be argued that a law 
prohibiting the location of a powder-mill in the 



258 Strange Children. 

very heart of this city is unconstitutional. One 
thing is certain, it is unconstitutional for the ine- 
briate to drink, very uncojistitutional, and it ought 
to be unconstitutional for any one to put the bottle 
to his mouth, or even permit him in his weak- 
ness to take what he knows to be for his in- 
jury. I believe in prohibition, that it is both 
feasible and equitable ; and have no doubt 
that the lawlessness and political corruption 
which grow out of the free use of intoxicants, and 
which are fearfully on the increase in our large 
cities, will drive the mass of law-abiding and law- 
loving citizens to the same conclusion ere long. 
We cannot afford the free sale of impure and 
drugged liquors, and this is about the result of a 
license law which provides a community of 10,000 
inhabitants with fifty drinking places — one for 
ever}' 200 people. 

But there is another method of reaching the 
source and cutting off the suppl}' of drunkenness. 
If we would, like the prophet of old, put salt in 
the spring, and thus heal the impure waters of 
Jericho, we must operate on the minds of the chil- 
dren. Let there be a general and efficient move- 
ment in this direction, and it will tell upon the com- 
ing generation. Our e^^es will not behold so many 
filthy spectacles as now appear on every hand ; and 
our feet will not be compelled to follow to the grave 
so many persons who, on account of wicked indul- 
gence, have not lived out half of their days. 

Do we wish our sons to escape the influence of 



Strange Children, 259 

the strange children, who would entice them to 
ruin, and become as plants grown up in their 
youth? Look at the gardener. He watches the 
sprig as it emerges from' the ground. He keeps 
the weeds from choking it and stealing its nour- 
ishment from the soil. He sees it is not so sur- 
rounded with trees and foliage that it is deprived 
of the warm sunbeams. He waters it, and ma- 
nures it, and prunes it, and drives the bugs from 
it, and thus he brings it to a quick and healthy 
maturity. We must do this with our children. 
Can we expect, when so many adverse influences 
are at work, that our sons will grow up to be 
strong, virtuous, holy men, if we neglect them in 
their infancy and childhood ? Do you imagine, 
intelligent parents, if you permit your hoys to 
form their own habits, or permit Satan to fill their 
minds with evil thoughts and lead them in sinful 
paths, you can, after they attain manhood, and 
perhaps have gone astray, influence them to be- 
come sober and godly men ? Surely you could 
not reasonably expect such a result from such a 
course of treatment. If, after your neglect and 
indifference, they should do well, it would be 
almost a miracle, for which you might well praise 
God. 

Do we wish our daughters to be as corner- 
stones, polished after the similitude of a palace? 
We should remember the stone-cutter does not 
produce his beautiful columns by one stroke of 
bis chisel or hammer. He applies water to s ^ften 



26o Strange Children. 

the hard material. He nicks and nicks, and rub? 
and rubs, early and late, to present the smootb 
surface and the graceful carving- to the ej^e. He 
is active and earnest, prompt and persevering)! 
and this makes him successful. We must be like 
him. We must be diligent. We must cut off ab 
the rough edges of nature. We must carefully and 
constantly rub down the coarse surface of sin. 
And we have this advantage over the stone-cut- 
ter. We can begin our work before the stones 
are hard. When these precious blocks of marble 
come to our hand, th.Qy are quite soft and pliable, 
and we are very foolish workmen if we wait to 
operate upon them until they become repulsive to 
impression. 

The command of God and the dictate of rea- 
son is, " Train up a child in the way he should 
go," and the promise given us for our encourage- 
ment is, '' When he is old, he will not depart from 
it." Why not consider that these words apply as 
well to the subject af temperance as to any 
other? If we could raise some heart-broken par- 
ents from their graves, and by a magic 'touch put 
them, and others who still live to mourn over 
their children destroyed and hopes wrecked, back 
a generation; if, retaining their bitter experience, 
they could retrace their steps, and have their 
innocent offspring again to train — how early 
would they listen to the voice of wisdom, and not 
put off until to-morrow the work which should be 
done to-day ! 



Strange Children, 261 

Do you see that drunkard reeling through the 
Street or rolling- in the gutter? He is in tatters. 
His eyes are bloodshot. His features are dis- 
torted. His breath is hot and pestilential. His 
touch is pollution. From him the brutes turn in 
loathing and disgust. Parents, that forlorn rem- 
nant of mortality was once a sweet and pretty 
child. He was as fair and lovely as the infant you 
left to-night sleeping in his cradle. His mother 
washed, and dressed, and nursed, and kissed him, 
and played with him, and hung over him with 
maternal affection when he lay in placid sleep, 
just as mothers do now. His father took him in 
his arms, and with pride and hope folded him to 
his bosom. Friends came to that pleasant home 
and petted the child, and congratulated the happy 
parents on their promising boy. Who then 
thought he would come to this ? Who for a mo- 
ment fancied he could ever be in such a plight as 
that in which we now see him ? And yet this is 
the history of hundreds of thousands now cursing 
our land, filling our asylums and prisons, morti- 
fying and impoverishing their friends, and ruining 
themselves for both worlds. 

Can you not learn the lesson ? If you would not 
witness your children transformed into such 
loathsome objects; if you would have them grow 
up like thrifty plants, and stand as symmetrical, 
polished, substantial columns in the temple of 
state and the sanctuary of God, you cannot 
begin too early to instruct and influence them. 



262 Strange Children. 

You must educate them to be sober men and 
women. 

Do you ask how this work, the education o4 
the dear children to habits of temperance, is tq 
be performed ? 

\Ve reply, first of all, parents, teachers, and 
friends should give to the young the benefit of 
their example. We will suppose that a man in 
mature life can withstand temptation, and cannot 
by any intrigue be drawn into the devouring 
whirlpool (which is, as you well know, an hypo- 
thesis not always realized). Do you think, with the 
cup to his lips frequently or even occasionally, he 
can deter his children from a like indulgence ? 
Exceptions there are to the rule ; but the swearing 
father may expect to have swearing boys ; the 
lazy mother will usually have lazy girls; the 
careless instructor will be surrounded as a gen- 
eral thing with careless pupils. And so, if you 
will drink intoxicating liquors, my friends, you 
may reasonably expect to be imitated in this as 
in other habits. You perpetuate if 3'ou do not 
create the fashion. The sparkling 3^oung eyes 
are upon 3^ou when, it may be with a gusto, 
you imbibe your glass of wine at dinner, or 
smack your lips over j^our beer with a friend 
who happens to come in to spend the evening. 
Very naturally, the j^oung people conclude what 
is good for the parent is good for the child, and 
that such a grand old custom, so promotive of 
sociability and good cheer, should be kept in the 



Strange Children. 263 

family and handed down from generation to 
generation. 

If, then, you sincerely wish tne rising race, and 
especially those dear youth under your care and 
influence, to be sober and thrifty men and women, 
you should give them the benefit of your exam- 
ple. Is this a hard thing? Not half so hard as 
man}^ things you willingly and cheerfully do, kind 
parents, for the benefit of your offspring. No 
harder than to spend sleepless nights and painful 
days with your sick ones. No harder than to 
lug and toil in order to obtain a competency for 
the support and education and outfit of your 
children. Not so hard by a hundredfold as it 
may be in after years to watch your sons and 
daughters drinking to excess; to witness them 
the slaves of appetite ; to hear their reproaches 
heaped on your heads, and to follow them to the 
drunkard's grave. You may be paying very 
dearly for your occasional glass, my friend. 
Pause and consider! 

Next to a good example is the positive influence 
in favor of temperance. You may find it difficult 
to operate upon the minds of those who are ad- 
vanced in life. People are as a general thing very 
fearful of reforms. They pride themselves on 
their conservatism, on their individual force of 
character, on their genteel habits. It requires a 
miracle to move some, and nothing short of the 
millennium will influence others who are set in 
their way. They are like a conceited old wine- 



264 Strange Children, 

cask, determined to be nothing but a wine-cask, and 

which at length, full of emptiness and vanit}^ 
falls to pieces from advanced age and decay. 

But the young are usually pliable. They are 
easily reached and easily influenced. What shall 
we do to interest them in this cause, thereby sav- 
ing them from dissipation and ruin, and secur- 
ing their co-operation with us in efforts to save 
others ? 

An excellent thing is the family pledge. Many 
years ago, when total abstinence was in its infancy, 
a Christian minister called together his household, 
and explained to them the dangers of intemper- 
ance, and proposed that parents and children 
should then and there agree to abstain from all 
that will intoxicate. The proposal was agreed to. 
The parents signed their names. The older 
children followed. And one little boy, too young 
to write his own name, was enrolled by his father. 
Forty years have passed away since that occur- 
rence, and that boy who understood the subject 
well, but was not old enough to sign his name, 
stands before you now to recommend the fam- 
ily pledge. 

Children's temperance societies may be made 
very effective.- The Band of Hope is very pop- 
ular, and this very properly pledges the youth 
against the low and wicked habit of profanity 
and the use of tobacco as well as indulgence in 
intoxicants. Juvenile societies are often con- 
nected with Sabbath-schools, meetings being held 



Strange Children. 265 

on week evenings once a week or once a month, 
at which dialogues are spoken, addresses de- 
livered, songs sung, and the pledge circulated. 

By these efforts thousands of children have been 
kept from the paths of the destroyer, and if Chris- 
tian parents and teachers entered more generally 
and heartily into the work, much larger results 
would be accomplished. In the year 1847, ^ Sab- 
bath-school teacher visited a city jail. In one 
ward he found seventeen young convicts, and to 
his astonishment learned that fifteen of the num- 
ber had been Sabbath-school boys. One of them 
said, alluding to his early instruction, *' If I had 
remembered what I learned, and kept from drink, 
I should not be here." The question was asked, 
** Did not your teacher, with other good advice, 
urge you to abstain from intoxicating drinks ?" 
The reply was, " No " — and this was the testimony 
of the others. Upon reviewing his own Sabbath- 
school work, this teacher felt condemned for his 
negligence in this particular, and standing in the 
cell of that prison, he made a solemn mental pro- 
mise that no child should in the future come un- 
der his care without being warned against the 
dangers of intemperance, and advised to a course 
of total abstinence. 

Christians, you are all interested in the children. 
Then come and join us in our efforts to save the 
coming generation from the experience of the 
past. Help us in trying to reach the outcast 
youth, who in a few years will be besotted and 



266 Strange Children. 

desperate characters, destroying the peace of the 
community, and filling our houses of refuge and 
penitentiaries, unless we bring them under a 
wholesome influence. It is in vain to talk of sav- 
ing the soul when the body and the habits of the 
mind are neglected. If the demon intemperance 
once gets hold of the rising race, it will be useless 
to tell them of a Saviour and try to woo them into 
his kingdom. It will probably be too late — too late. 
Thousands now near will be beyond the reach of 
your voice, and in infamy they will go down to 
premature death and eternal anguish. 

We shudder at the thought. Are our children 
in danger ? Are the most likely youth of our age 
liable to fall ? Is it almost certain that the many 
children who have drinking parents and unhallow- 
ed homes will grow up to be pests in society, and 
die in sin and shame? Merciful God, have com- 
passion on us ! Rouse, fellow-Christians, and 
help ! Fathers, mothers, philanthropists, patriots, 
come to the rescue ! The country calls you. 
Humanity calls, God calls. Jesus, who died to 
save sinners, bids you enlist in this cause, because 
it is auxiliary to the great work of redemption. 
We plead for the soul ; for, remember, the Bible 
declares no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of 
God. 

We have great encouragement in engaging in 
this great work. If we go forth as Christians, 
with earnestness and faith, v/e may find to our 
rejoicing, as the seventy disciples of old did, the 



Strange Children, 26y 

very devils subject to us. We may behold Satan 
fall like lightning from heaven. Perhaps we will 
have given unto us power to tread on serpents 
and scorpions. We believe our cause is of the 
Lord, and he will help us. And therefore we 
labor in hope, and, applying the lever of prayer 
to the fulcrum of divine truth, we cry out, *' Rid 
and deliver us from the hand of strange children, 
whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right 
hand is a right hand of falsehood ; that our sons 
may be as plants grown up in their youth ; that 
our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished 
after the similitude of a palace/' 



THE 

Impeachment and Punishmeni 

OF 

ALCOHOL. 



" I^OK not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color ia 
the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and 
stingeth like an adder." — Prov. xxiii. 31, 32. 

WE are here to confront the great enemy of 
our time ; to handle the greatest living ques- 
tion. This monster has ''the world " for a home, 
" the flesh " for a mother, and '' the devil " for a 
father. He stands erect, a monster of fabulous 
proportions. He has no head, and cannot think. 
He has no heart, and cannot feel. He has no 
eyes, and cannot see. He has no ears, and can- 
not hear. He has only an instinct by which to plan, 
a passion by which to allure, a coil by which to 
bind, a fang with which to sting, and an infinite 
maw in which to consume his victims. 

I impeach this monster, and arraign him before 
the bar of the public judgment, and demand his 
condemnation in the name of industry robbed and 
beggared; of the public peace disturbed and 
broken ; of private safety gagged and garrotcd ; 
of common justice violated and trampled ; of the 
popular conscience debauched and prostituted; qi 



2/0 Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol, 

royal manhood wrecked and ruined ; and of help- 
less innocence waylaid and assassinated. 

In examining this case, we shall appropriate 
whatever we can find of service in the labors of 
chemists, jurists compilers, scholars, in every 
branch of the subject. 

We now approach to-night the most difficult 
part of this subject — The Correction of the Evil. 
Even a child may accurately determine when it is 
sick, while the most skilful practitioner may 
utterly fail in his prescription. Your stable-boy 
may know that your horse has been stolen, though 
Pinkerton and all his band may not recover him. 
The public mind has only to glance at this crim- 
inal to be certain of his guilt. For he goes about 
armed with all malignity, concealed behind all 
craftiness, seeking with infinite cunning to en- 
trap the unwary and destroy the feeble. Like a 
blood-h-ound, he scents his victims afar off, track- 
ing them with patient and infallible instinct across 
fiery sand-fields and over the barren rock- waste. 
Once on a young man's track, with one sniff of his 
heel, nothing but the running stream of living 
water can check his pursuit and give the fugitive 
rest. In dark rooms and ding}^ cellars,, in secret 
conclave, he devises his plans and mixes his drugs. 
;By night and by day he draws out the catalogues 
of crime. With hands polluted with blood, and 
locks that wriggle and crawl and hiss ; with pur- 
pose fixed for slaughter, and with heart unpitying 
and unrelenting, he presses his infernal work. 
With the gold his ciimes have brought him, he 



Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 271 

seeks to secure friends in the halls of legislation • 
to put his judges upon the bench, his advocatei 
at the bar, his witnesses on the stand, and, to 
make surety doubly sure, his views in the public 
mind. He would conti-ol, if he could, not only 
our almshouses and prisons, but also our legisla- 
tive halls and our public presses. He would fill 
not only our cells and graveyards, but also our 
judgment-seats and our police commissions. This 
is our foe — cunning as a fox, wise as a serpent, 
strong as an ox, bold as a lion, merciless as a tiger, 
remorseless as a hyena, fierce as the pestilence, 
deadly as the plague. To condemn and correct 
such a criminal is not the pastime of an hour, but 
the manly^ hero-born^ "tnartyr-bred work of a life^ 
time. 

The Legislature of Illinois has given us a law 
with which we can handle this monster. I will 
read the distinguishing features : 

Section i. Be it enacted by the People of the Sfi^fe of Illinois^ 
represented in the General Assembly, That it shall be unlawful for 
any person or persons, by agent or otherwise, without fiist having 
obtained a license to keep a grocer}', to sell in any quantity, in- 
toxicating liquors, to be drunk in, upon, or about the building or 
premises where sold, or to sell such intoxicating liquors to be 
drunk in any adjoining room, building, or premises, or other place 
of public resort connected with said building : Provided, That no 
person shall be granted a license to sell or give away intoxicating 
liquors, without first giving a bond to the municipality or author- 
ity authorized by law to grant licenses ; which bond shall run in 
the name of " The People of the State of Illinois," and be in the 
penal sum of three thousand dollars, with at least two good and 
sufficient securities, who shall be freeholders, conditioned that 
they will pay all damages to any person or persons which may bo 



272 Impeachment and Pu7iishment of Alcohol, 

inflicted upon them, either in person or property, or means of sup- 
port, by reason of the person so obtaining a license selling or 
giving away intoxicating liquors ; and such bond may be sued 
and recovered upon for the use of any person ar persons, or their 
legal representatives, who may be injured by reason of the sell- 
ing intoxicating liquors by the person or his agent so obtaining 
the license. 

Sec. 5. Every husband, wife, child, parent, guardian, employee, 
or other person, who shall be injured in person or property, or 
means of support, by any intoxicated person, or in consequence 
of the intoxication, habitual or otherwise, of any person, shall 
have a right of action in his or her own name, severally or jointly, 
against any person or persons who shall, by selling or giving in- 
toxicating liquors, have caused the intoxication, in whole or in 
part, of such person or persons. 

Sec. 8. For the payment of all fines, costs, and damages, as- 
sessed against any person or persons, in consequence of the sale 
of intoxicating liquors, as provided in section five of this act, the 
real estate and personal property of such person or persons, of 
every kind, except such as may be exempt under the homestead 
laws of this State, or such as may be exempt from lev}' and sale 
upon judgment and execution, shall be liable, and such fines^ 
costs, and damages shall be a lien upon such real estate until 
paid ; and in case any person or persons shall rent or lease to 
another or others any building or premises to be used or oc- 
cupied, in whole or in part, for the sale of intoxicating liquors, or 
shall permit the same to be so used or occupied, such building or 
premises so used or occupied shall be held liable for and may b« 
sold to pay all fines, costs, and damages assessed against any per- 
son or persons occupying such building or premises. 

Sec. 10. In all prosecutions under this act, by indictment or 
otherwise, it shall not be necessary to state the kind of liquor 
sold, or to describe the place where sold. 

We urge the maintenance of this law because it 
is the only available system that will reach tJte case. 

I can see hwt five possible courses of action, one 
of which must be followed. The first and easiest 
in seeming, but not in fact, is to sit still— the do- 



Impeachment and Punishment of AlcohoL 273 

nothing policy. I need not argue this case. It is 
not admissible. Indeed, it is not long- possible. 
We cannot sit still if we would. We are on the 
crusted crater of Vesuvius. Its eruption is only a 
question of time. Soon it will belch, and we shall 
find such a grave that no future antiquarian will 
more than dream of our existence. The tiger is 
at our throat. Sit still and we are dead. We 
must act ; we must move. All that sin ever wants 
is to be let alone. The thief has his hand in youi? 
pocket, and asks you to hold still. If you move, 
you may put him to more trouble or disappoint 
him of his gains. The assassin is in your chamber, 
steahng, with clinched dagger, up to the crib 
where your child slumbers. All he wants is time. 
The work of reform is always aggressive, and 
wearisome, and dangerous. It must have its con- 
t^ictions from above, be in league with God, move 
by a command so supreme that no human veto 
is heard. It can have no fellowship with conserva- 
tism. Cautious it may be, but never cowardly. 
It takes bold and strong strokes to liberate an 
angel from a block of marble. Every advance is 
fatal to the old forms. Even the serpent's worn- 
out skin creaks and rustles when the inhabitant 
moves out. Like cinders, it is crisp and crotchety 
while it lasts. God sent his Son into the world 
not to bring peace, but a sword. It is an old war 
against an aggressor — sin. He must be driven 
out of the world, and this means conflict, and 
struggle, and woe. The sooner we settle down to 
the conviction that we are to endure hard- 



274 Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol, 

ness like good soldiers, the better it will be 
for us. 

Another line of action that has been presented, 
tried, and exploded, is just now practically 
brought forward as an amendment to this law — 
to except wine and beer. It is the substitution of 
wines y lighter drinks, in the place of alcohol or strong 
spirituous liquors. To pave the way, it is stated by 
Ex-Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, in his 
pamphlet for which he received $10,000 from the 
Liquor Ring, that all peoples that have arrived at 
any degree of civilization have been drinking 
peoples, have invented some kind of intoxicating 
drink. It is, therefore, most bravely concluded 
that strong drink is a civilizer. A grog-shop, 
then, is a centre of civilizing power. Need one 
argue against such a statement? It reminds one 
of Lord Brougham's case concerning Tenterton 
Steeple and Donneby Sands. In former times, 
there was a harbor at Donneby ; the sea filled the 
channel. Meantime, a church with a steeple was 
built at Tenterton. A meeting was called to 
consider what should be done about the channel, 
when one man said that he noticed that, as soon 
as they built that steeple at Tenterton, the chan- 
nel filled up, and moved that thev tear down the 
steeple. All peoples that have become civilized 
have drunk strong drink: therefore, strong drink 
is a civilizer. Mark another fact. All peoples 
that have become civilized have stolen, been licen- 
tious and adulterous, and have lied ; therefore, steal- 
ing, licentiousness, adultery, and lying are civilize rs. 



Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 275 

Now, let us look at the facts concerning domes- 
tic wines and their influence upon drunkenness in 
the countries where they ai-e raised and made. 
This will be a fair putting of the case, to put it at 
its best. Paris, the city of wine, where the light 
wiwes abound, where more wine is consumed than 
in any other city in the world, in 1863 consumed 
seven gallons distilled spirits for each man, 
woman, and child. That surpasses us. She pro- 
duces 1,089,000,000 gallons of wine in 1865, yet 
consumes more brandy and other distilled liquors 
per head than any other nation on earth. This 
indicates that wine does not wean men from 
strong drink. If it does, they had better 
not be weaned, judging by the poverty, 
wretchedness, and godlessness that character- 
ize France, especially the wine-growing sec- 
tions. 

There is an impression that France is a tempe- 
rate nation. Men ride through the country in 
the better class of cars and see little of it, because 
the matchless police remove the nuisance ; but let 
them live there, and live with the people, and 
they will change their minds. Listen to the 
witnesses : 

Our author, J. Fenimore Cooper, says : *' I 
came to Europe under the impression that there 
was more drunkenness among us (Americans) 
than in any other country. A residence of six 
months in Paris changed my viezvs entirily. I have 
taken unbelievers about Paris, and always con- 
vinced them in one walk. I have been more 



276 Impeachnent and Punishment of Alcohol, 

struck by drunkenness in the streets of Paris than 
in those of London." 

Horace Greeley wrote from Paris: ''That wine 
will intoxicate, does intoxicate, that there are con- 
firmed drunkards in Paris and throughout France, 
is notorious and undeniable." 

M. Le Clerc says : ** Laborers leave their work, 
derange their means, drink irregularly, and trans- 
form into drunken debauch the time which should 
have been spent in profitable labor." 

A French magazine says: "■ Drunkenness is the 
beginning and end of life in the great French 
industrial centres. At Lille, twenty-five per cent, 
of the men and twelve per cent, of the women 
are confirmed drunkards." 

The Count de Montalembert, Member of the 
Academy of Natural Sciences, said in the Na- 
tional Assembly of France : " Where there is a 
wine-shop, there are the elements of disease, and 
the frightful source of all that is at enmity with 
the interests of the workman." 

M. Jules Simon : ** Women rival the men in 
drunkenness. At Lille, at Rouen, there are some 
so saturated with it that their infants refuse to 
take the breast of a sober woman." 

Hon. James M. Usher, Chief Commissioner of 
Massachusetts to the World's Exposition in Paris, 
in 1867, says : " The drinking habit runs through 
every phase of society. I have seen more people 
drunk here than I ever saw in Boston for the 
same length of time. They are the same class of 
people, too." 



impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 2JJ 

Hon. Caleb Foote, of Salem, Mass., writing 
from Paris, after large investigations, '' denies, in 
toto, the theory that the people of the wine- 
producing countries are sober." 

Dr. E. N. Kirk, of Boston, says : ** I never saw 
such systematic drunkenness as I saw in France 
during a residence of sixteen months. The 
French go about it as a business. I never saw so 
many women drunk." 

Surely there is no lack of testimony. Look at 
other wine-growing countries : 

Rev. E. S. Lacy^ of San Francisco, six months 
in Switzerland in a wine-growing section, says : 
" Here more intoxication was obvious than in any 
other place it was ever my lot to live in." 

Before the Legislative License Committee of 
Massachusetts, Dr. Warren, of the Boston Bibli- 
cal School, seven years a resident in Germany, 
says : '' Drunkenness very common ; every eve- 
ning drunken people stagger by my house." 

Rev. J. G, Cochran, Missionary tn Persia, 
says of a wine-producing section : " The whole 
village of male adults will be habitually intox^ 
Gated for a month or six weeks." 

Rev* Mr. Larabee, another missionary to Persia, 
confirms the statement. Even priests coolly 
excuse their own irregularities by the plea of 
drunkenness. 

How in Italy? Cardinal Acton, Chief Judge 
of Rome, says: ** Nearly all the crime in Rome 
Originates in the use of wine." 

Thirty-five or forty years ago, England at- 



27S Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 

tempted to suppress drunkenness by licensing ale 
and beer. More distilled liquor per head now 
than then. The consumption of distilled liquors 
has increased in the last fifty years one hundred 
and seventy -five per cent. 

Turn to America. How fares it in California ? 
The experiment fails. A State convention of the 
friends of temperance, in October, 1866, resolved 
against wine-growing. Conventions of Congre- 
gational ministers and lay delegates, same month, 
reached the same result. They are fully con- 
vinced that the hope of temperance based on 
wine is delusive. This case has been tried till the 
State exceeds, perhaps, all others in corruption. 

Com. Wells : ** California, with her cheap wines 
for temperance, in the year ending June 30, 1867, 
sold fourteen times, per head, as much alcoholic 
stuff as Maine did, and more than any other 
State." 

These are the facts concerning the wine-grow- 
ing countries. The idea of a substitute of wine 
for alcohol in the interest of temperance is absurd. 
I have protracted this part of the argument be- 
cause the enemies of this law are seeking to have 
wine and beer excepted from the law. But do it, 
and you kill the law ; and this is what they seek. 
Beware ! If you make wine and beer abound, 
drunkenness will much more abound. 

Against this evil plan we can only thunder the 
facts that the countries that manufacture and 
drink most wine use most distilled liquors, and 
have the largest per cent, of beastly, wife-beatingt 



Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol, 279 

child-beating drunkenness. Husbands may tell 
their ragged and pleading wives that they can 
stop. They guess they know who drives. They 
can stop if they will, but the fact remains. The 
60,000 drunkards that annually die were all mode- 
rate drinkers before they settled down into old 
tubs. They all tippled a little before they guzzled. 
There is no disguising the fact : once drinking, 
there is no way out but to face about and let it 
alone, or go through into hell. When a pair of 
dice are thrown, and 999 out of 1,000 turn double 
sixes, you are bound to believe the dice loaded. 
This awful game of perdition turns up death 
60,000 tim.es a year. Are you willing to believe 
that any dose is safe ? Will slow scuttling keep 
a ship afloat better than no scuttling ? You who 
tipple are the ones that need to be alarmed. 'Tis 
not the worthless sot that desolates the land ; it is 
the respectable drinker. This is where the evil 
is conceived and born. Beware of the beginnings 
of evil. Wines can never advance the temper- 
ance cause by being substituted for distilled 
liquors. 

The third mode of treatment is that practised 
in Illinois and many other States. It is the Li- 
cense System. This justly assumes that the 
traffic is wrong, and must be controlled. 1 am 
bold to say that this is the chiefest if not the only 
virtue in the entire system. I object to the li- 
cense system, that it does not control the trade. It 
does not limit the sale of liquor. Do you ask for 
proof? You can have it on this very block, withiu 



28o Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 

a stDne's cast from this spot. There is not a sec- 
tion of this city where there is any dearth of 
saloons. There are in Chicago two thousand — 
one for each one hundred and fifty people. There 
is not a man living in this city whom the law has 
restrained from drink. It does not restrain the 
business. 

Again : // helps to make this systematized murder 
respectable. Good citizens do not engage in killing 
their fellows. Reputable men do not go into this 
work of making criminals and paupers. This 
awful work is disgraceful. License legalizes it, 
and cloaks it with public sanction. Thc}^ become 
public servants, doing the public will. 

Again : It is an unjust monopoly. If it is right 
for one man in one hundred and fifty to sell 
liquor, the other one hundred and forty-nine have 
the same right. If it is wrong for the one hun- 
dred and forty-nine, it cannot be right for the 
one. Legislatures have no power to make rights. 
Rights are as old as God. And no conclave, 
no Congress, no Parliament, no Sanhedrim, can 
give a man a right to murder his fellow for 
his money, even though he does drop a part of 
the price of his crime into the public coffers. 

Again : // involves the right to license gambling' 
houses and houses of ill-fajne. 

Again : It becomes itself a school of vice. The 
law is a public educator. If it proscribes a crime, 
it puts the fatal seal upon that crime, and the 
children grow up with the conviction of the evil 
of that crime. Establish the prize-ring by law, 



Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 281 

and your sons will be more apt to be bruisers. 
This is fearfully true of the license law. There- 
fore, for these reasons, the license law fails, and 
must for ever fail. 

The fourth course is by prohibition. I will not 
discuss this, for it is not now within our reach. 
But allow me to say, I believe in prohibition. 
We have the right by the law of self-preservation. 
Again, the Supreme Courts of some of the States 
have decided in its favor. The safety of the 
State is the supreme law. Moreover^ it is not a 
failure. It actually empties jails, almshouses, 
and poor-houses. It stops the sale of three- 
fourths of the liquor, and stops nearly all the 
crime. Take the general statistics. Maine, Ver- 
mont, and Massachusetts, with 2,250,000 popula- 
tion in i860, sold, under prohibitory law, I43,- 
022,754 worth of liquor during the year 1867. 
New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Wis- 
consin, with 2,225,000 population, sold the same 
year, under license-law, $137,886,445 worth of 
liquor. Prohibition is not a failure. 

We now approach the last experiment as em- 
bodied in the new law. Three questions arise. 
First, Is it right? Second, Is it wise? Third, Is 
it possible? Let us answer in detail. It is right, 
because all that favors prohibition favors this, as 
the greater includes the less. The first fact is 
this. Intemperance is an evil, therefore this re- 
straint can do no harm. The experiment is safe. 
It is the case of a man on a burning vessel — it is 
entirely safe to take to the landing. Whatever 



282 Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 

comes, to stay is to die. The change here can dc 
no harm ; we take no risk. Again, we have the 
right. This inheres in us; we have the right to 
protection. A man tries to bring his cattle from 
Texas to our market ; we stop him, because they 
infect and damage our herds. A man tries to 
bring the quintessence of ruin into my home to 
infect my sons. I have a right to stop him ; are 
not my sons as sacred as my oxen ? An assassin 
crawls into my room and raises his dagger above 
my wife. He dies, if God gives me grace and 
strength to kill him. A wretch crawls up to my 
brother and undertakes to poison him. Have I 
not a right to stop him? A man comes to my 
hen-coop to steal my chickens. The law says 
Joliet,^ He comes to my angel-coop to steal my 
angels. Have I not a right to protect them? 
Have I not as divine a right to defend my chil- 
dren as I have to defend my chickens? More 
than this, the Supreme Courts of many of the 
States declare this right. The people are sover- 
eign. They have supreme right to stop crime. 
Prohibition is an old right : China forbade the use 
of wine eleven hundred years before Christ, and it 
is a stranger there yet as a beverage* Carthage 
banished it from the camp. Plato approved this 
law. Lycurgus made it shameful to use it ; slaves 
were intoxicated and exhibited to the youth. 
Romulus sentenced women to death for intoxica- 
tion as the beginning of adultery. Mohammed 

* State prison. 



Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 283 

prohibited it twelve hundred and fifty years ago. 
Governments have always had the right to punish 
and prevent crime. 

This is not all vague generalities. This law is 
based on the principles of common justice and 
common law. A leading jurist of this city, Hon. 
Judge Goodrich, has given me his opinion of this 
law since its enactment. 

He says: " It is justified upon principles funda- 
mental to all social and governmental organiza- 
tions. In entering into society, every individual 
surrenders certain of his natural rights, such as 
the vindication of his wrongs, the protection of 
life and of property, in consideration that society 
will insure to him the peaceable enjoyment of his 
unsurrendered rights, and indemnity for all 
wrongs done to him. 

" One right surrendered is the privilege of doing 
anything, though personally beneficial, or pur- 
suing any occupation, the natural or probable re- 
sults of which are, or are likely to be, injurious to 
other members of society ; and society in return 
is bound to prevent such acts, and provide for re- 
muneration for all damages occasioned by such 
acts. This right and remedy should be extended 
to wives, mothers, minors, as well as to 
men and adults. Unless society afford this 
protection and these remedies, it cannot be 
maintained, for it fails to keep its terms of the 
compact. 

"Hence, if a man erect on his premises a dan- 
gerous or unhealthful business, or nuisance 



284 Impeachmejtt a7id Punishment of Alcohol. 

societ}^ can remove it, and the injured party can 
recover damages resulting directly from the 
same. 

'' So we say, If the natural result or probable 
result of the sale of intoxicating liquors to mi- 
nors, or persons liable to intoxication, is to inflict 
any injury upon the person purchasing it, or other 
persons, society is bound to prevent it, or afford 
to the parties damnified adequate compensation 
for the injury sustained. 

*' If it takes away the means of maintenance 
from those dependent upon the party to whom 
sold, or maddens his brain so he inflicts injury 
upon others, society is bound to give them a 
remedy of compensation. 

*' This law is just to the vendor, and is founded 
on well-established principles of the common law. 

" The law holds a man responsible for the con- 
sequences of an act which he had reasonable 
ground to know would be the result of the act, 
and, doing the act with such knowledge, is held to 
have intended the consequences : therefore, as a 
vendor of intoxicating drinks knows its sale to a 
minor or habitually intoxicated person usually 
produces acts of violence, pauperism, etc., he 
should be regarded as having intended to pro- 
duce such results, and liable for the injurious re- 
sults." 

This is definitively stated, vol. i., " Starkie on 
Evidence," p. 51 : ''In case of crime, it is reason- 
able to infer that a man intended and contemplat- 
ed that end and result which is the natural and 



Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 285 

immediate consequence of the means which he 
used." Therefore^ for the foregoing reasons we con- 
elude that the law is right. 

Next, Is it wise ? Is it a law that, enforced, will 
reach the object aimed at? In my judgment, it is 
wise, because it treats the business like any other 
crime. It does not dignify it by the name of law, 
nor protect it by the arm of the government. It 
does not turn the rumseller loose in society as a 
teacher on the footing of public approval to mould 
and educate our children. It brands him as an 
enemy. It does not let him lift a hand or foot till 
it takes hostages from him for good behavior ; and 
thus it says, " This monster must be watched. He 
may slay or ruin somebody. Beware!" It looks 
on him as a mad dog in the highway. It runs 
after him, crying, '' Mad dog, mad dog." This 
puts a sort of Cain-mark on him to start with. 
Society says, ** I am not able to slay him, but I 
will cry after him, wherever he goes. Murderer ! 
murderer ! so the youth in the land may not be 
deceived." It is like a certain old English livery- 
stable, in which a police-officer was stationed. Of 
some gentle horses he said to the owner, '' Hire 
them, and make a living, and be blessed." Of one 
black, untamed beast he said, *' If you hire him 
out, you shall pay damages." It discriminates 
against the black beast. A man can sell groce- 
ries, and the law says, " Amen, good citizen ; " 
but if he sells alcohol, it says, " Dangerous ! be- 
ware of the black beast." 

It is wise, because it strikes the rumseller ivhere 1u 



2 86 Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 

lives — in the pocket. It wastes no strength in senti- 
mentalism. It moves to conquer. It means 
business. It comprehends the character of the 
enem\\ Nothing but striking the profits can be 
understood, so it aims low ; and, if I mistake not, 
it will slay these things, rumsellers, by the thou- 
sand. The law accepts the situation, admits that 
every sentiment of humanity is dead, that moral 
obligation has lost its power, that honor has long 
been forgotten, that common justice is only a 
m3'th of the past, that there is no footing in such 
a soul but in the low sense of loss of the blood- 
stained gains. 

So the law is wnse in striking the rumseller 
w^here he lives — in his pocket. Touch the profits, 
and he feels ; make it unprofitable, and it will cease. 
It is not a missionarj^ enterprise, it is all for gain. 

It is wise, because it applies the recovered money to 
the iiijiired. It does not put this money into the 
public pocket. I have little faith in the policy 
that will allow a man to destroy a whole neighbor- 
hood, send a hundred men to jail and a hundred 
families to the poor-house, and stop a score of fac- 
tories, for the small income the murderer pa3's on 
his booty. Nor do I see how the Sate can inno- 
cently barter the blood and health and character 
of my brother or son for a few dollars for the 
treasury. I have more faith even in the poor 
wretch who, in the confessional, while confessing 
and paying a few pence for absolution, was steal- 
ing the priest's watch and purse. It is here a 
penny in, and a thousand dollars out. 



Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol, 287 

But this law gives its recovered plunder Jio! to 
the State, which has but doubtful right to it, but 
to those who suffer the wrong and need the help. 
It keeps that mother from pauperism. It feeds 
and schools those helpless, innocent, wronged, and 
robbed children. It applies the funds exactly 
where they are most needed, and, therefore, we 
conclude that it is wise. 

It is wise, because it cuts down through all subter- 
fuges, and makes good its securities. Wherever it is 
possible to sell or give away this deadly drug, 
there it can seize the very soil for damages. It 
stops not at the cat's-paw, but it reaches all the 
parties. The landlord who divides the profits in 
rents must now divide the responsibility and dam- 
ages as he has always shared the guilt. Nothing 
can be clearer than that the man who furnishes 
the den is a particeps crhninis^ and should be so 
held. Some men rent their buildings for dead- 
falls, and fancy that they are free from guilt. But 
I can see no moral difference between your letting 
a saloon into your building and your tending the 
bar yourself. In both cases you pocket the pro- 
fits, and your hiring some widow's son to dose 
out the poison for you does not lessen your guilt. 
The victims sinking into a drunkard's hell may 
fasten their frenzied hands upon you, and, crying, 
*' Thou art the man," drag you into the same con- 
demnation. This law recognizes this great fact, 
and holds the property liable, and so is wise. 

Again it is wise in making no distinctions in 
liquor. Chemists are not needed to define the 



288 Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 

various kinds. It is one simple question : Did 
the man who drank your liquor do any damage ? 
If beer and wine do no harm and do not intoxicate, 
then there will be no damages. If the man who 
drinks beer does not break down my fence, you 
will not have to put it up again. Why do these 
men resist ? It is because they know that wine 
and beer are dangerous and ruinous, and ought 
to be held responsible. 

Again, it is wise in touching off this shell with a 
six months' fuse. It gives its friends a chance to 
rally against a foe already in the fort and always 
ready. 

Is it possible ? Can it be enforced? This is the 
leading question. I wish to answer that it^^;^ and 
must be enforced, because it receives the support of 
the good men of all parties. It was introduced into 
the House by one party, and into the Senate by the 
other. Sometimes party spirit carries men over 
into opposition to a good thing, because it is of 
the opposite faction. But in this case it breaks 
into all the old party lines and makes a party for 
itself, and comes to the people with a tremendous 
endorsement from the strength of the State. 

The fact that it is a law of the State must be its 
surety. It is purely a question of public sentiment. 
If the people are convicted for the law, all the 
powers of lager and w^hiske}^ and of darkness 
cannot resist it. Awaken the people, impress 
them with the majesty and authority of law, set 
them for its defence, and its victory is inevitable. 
I think we need a revival on this Question of law* 



Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 289 

The way to despotism is through anaichy. Law 
is our only safety. Let me sail on a sea of fire 
rather than on the sea of chance and chaos. We 
are drifting toward the breakers. In the home 
there is a letting down of authority. Children 
are certain they know more than their parents, 
and, by the pulseless hand with which the parents 
guide them, I think the children are right. God 
has put you in charge. They are not your 
guardians. They resent correction as an insult. 
All this must be cured. In the home must be 
laid the foundations of law and authority. 
The best thing a people can have as insurance 
for the. future is a solid conviction of the authority 
of law. It is not a question whether my personal 
rights can be served, but what is the demand of 
the public good. My sidewalk may hold me, but 
it must hold also the public. My cellar-way may 
be sufficiently guarded for me, but it must also be 
safe for the stranger. The public good is the su- 
preme law And enacted law is the judgment of 
the majority as to what is the public good. So 
the individual can have no alternative but to obey 
the law while it is law, or suffer the penalty. Let 
this be instilled into every mind, and there will be 
no difficulty in enforcing the law on temperance 
or on any other subject. It is purely a question 
of public opinion. This is always resistless. 
Government is always the creature of the public 
will. The government of the Celestial Empire 
would last in America about one-sixteenth of 
one second — just long enough to touch 



290 Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol, 

ground. It would hold this Yankee nation about 
as long as a sheet of tissue paper would keep 
down an eruption of Vesuvius. The public senti- 
ment is absolute. No law can be valid without 
this support. Let the mayor issue a proclama- 
tion forbidding Christian people from assembling 
to worship next Sabbath morning, because he was 
opposed to it. What would happen ? I can tell 
you what would happen. Unless such action was 
demanded by the public good, on account of som^ 
plague or peril, and so had the approval of the 
people, next Sabbath would see us all in our 
places, and such a mayor in his place in Jackson- 
ville or at Elgin. The public will is supreme. 
This is always the final arbiter. This makes the 
people invincible. " You may destroy the cities 
t© the last hamlet, desolate the country to the last 
cabin, wipe out the press to the last page, and 
you have done nothing. There still remains the 
human mind, pure as the light and unapproach- 
able as the sun." And in its supreme decisions 
are the decrees of destiny. Thus you may burn 
the buildings from Jefferson Street to the Lake, and 
from De Koven Street to FuUerton Avenue, and 
you have not burned Chicago. All that is not 
Chicago. Chicago is in the heroic bosoms of the 
heroic people, in the everlasting purpose, in the 
almighty energy that camped like savages on the 
prairie, without stool or tent — planned by the 
light of the burning fortunes new railroads, new 
depots, new elevators, new hotels, new churches, 
a new city, and a new civilization. Fix this senti- 



Impeachment and Punishment of AlcohoL 291 

ment for this law, and then the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it. The whole question is one 
of public opinion. This, I think, is right, or can 
be righted by the first of July. 

Suppose I indicate how I think it can be done. 
First, on the general question of respect for law 
for the long future. Teach your children to re- 
spect it, teach them to respect your authority, 
and teach them to respect the law while in 
school. 

Again : Let your influence be solid against excus- 
ing great criminals. These local aldermen that 
have sold themselves and the public trust should 
have fair trial and fair chance like any other 
thieves, and, if convicted, suffer the extreme 
penalty of the law. They have nominally served 
the public for nothing, now make them do it 
actually. This is not so harsh. If it seems harsh, 
that seeming is proof of its necessity. This poor 
day-laborer is sick, and so without income, and 
his babes are hungry, and in desperation he 
snatches a man's money, and runs. He is dogged 
into the penitentiary. These scoundrels steal the 
city poor, and take away public confidence, and 
breed contempt for law. I say, in God's name, do 
not shield them, but send them to their reward. 
To secure this, let men in trying places know that 
they have your S3^mpathy and support. Without 
regard to party, let honest men say to the faith- 
ful judges and officials, " God bless you,** and 
" We will support you." 

The press have a large share of responsibility 



292 Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol. 

in this matter of public opinion. There is great 
hope in the general tone of the press on this law. 
Some editorials have been clear and manly for 
the law. These forces mean victory in July. 
The Press is the Third House, but the people are 
the Fourth House. 

Another fact : You come in contact with large 
numbers of laboring men. You meet them in 
their shops and at their work. A few words ju- 
diciously spoken will prepare them for right action 
when the time comes. If the law is to be resisted, 
men must be found to leave their work, and mass 
and combine against it. Now, you can prevent 
many from doing this. If the great working-class 
say that the law shall not be enforced, its execu- 
tion will be difficult, if not impossible. But if 
they say, '* It must be obeyed," or even keep out 
of the crowds and at their work, its enforcement 
will be as certain as destiny. Every man do his 
duty like a man, and this benign and equitable 
law will hedge this awful traffic with mortal and 
fatal disabilities. 

Mobs may threaten, but they must finally obey. 
I would put deliberate emphasis upon this. If 
men cannot obey the law, the way is open. They 
can return to the old despotisms, and they can go 
without passports too ; and they can take the 
fortunes they have made here. But if they stay, 
they must obey the law. I had rather be a thou- 
sand years longer m reclaiming the wilderness, 
than see it seized by brutality, and beastliness, and 
crime. 



Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol, 293 

Possibly soma of you are saying, " I approve 
the law, but my family is safe, and I will not take 
any risks of ill-will by taking sides. Let those 
who are exposed enforce the law." Brother, you 
are exposed. This traffic is an infernal machine 
stored under your bed. Your thoughtless boy 
may light the fuse when you least expect it. 
There is no safety with the thing about the 
premises. Is it just the fair play which we all 
approve and demand to ask our representatives to 
take the chances of defeat or censure in enacting 
a good law, which we approve and the public 
safety demands, and then we ourselves shirk the 
responsibility and leave the law unenfor<;ed ? Is 
it manly for us to send them out on the forlorn 
hope, and then, when they have made the breach 
and hold it, we desert and refuse to march in with 
the main army ? Ail honor to the men who have 
breasted the storm and secured such advantage 
to the cause ! Blessings from many a humble 
widow whose son shall be saved to her, and from 
many a poor orphan thus furnished with protection 
and possible schooling, shall come upon their heads. 
In the humble homes of poverty, where piety and 
virtue struggle against want and degradation, 
where God's tall and tender-footed angels keep 
nightly watch, there their names shall be men- 
tioned. And yonder, when the reckoning comes, 
think you this vote shall be forgotten ? I tell you, 
nay. The Judge himself shall say, " Inasmuch as 
you have done it unto the least of these my little 
ones, you have done it unto me." I had rather 



294 Impeachment and Punishment of AlcchoL 

have my name on that affirmative vote than be the 
representative of a compromised and drunken 
constituency for a thousand years. All honor to 
the men who enacted the law, and let us show 
ourselves worthy of such representatives. To- 
night, brothers, after this long survey of this 
momentous subject, I call upon you, in the pres- 
ence of this great criminal — in full view of his 
malignant character ; of the vileness that stamps 
the poison itself ; of the frauds that are practised 
in its manufacture; of the deadly counterfeits that 
deepen its malignity ; of the insanity that makes 
its victims fairly fly to ruin; of the 1,000,000 
wrecks that stagger, and ooze, and leer, and bloat, 
and fester, and fall downward ; of the 60,000 poor 
creatures that yearly fill drunkards' graves on 
their way to the drunkard's doom ; of 2,000,000 
children that are left worse than orphans, cursed 
with an inheritance of rags and shame ; of the 
3,000,000 of women who have millstones tied about 
their necks and are thus cast into the social sea ; 
of the 200,000 broken-hearted ones that yearly 
march to the poor-house ; of the 200,000 convicts 
that are annually sent to jail ; of the 200,000 or- 
phans annually bequeathed to public charity ; of 
the 450 suicides that are caused by this evil spirit ; 
of the 700 murders that horrify the year ; of the 
1,350 rapes that are committed by this demon ; of 
the 1 2,000 lunatics that are made in this lire; of the 
great company of idiots that are spawned by this 
monster ; of the millions of homes ruined and all 
the homes threatened bv this invader; of the pub- 



Impeachment and Punishment of Alcohol, 295 

Kc schools, robbed of 2,000,000 children ; of seven. 
eighths of all the crimes of the land committed by 
this evil inspiration ; and of the enormous sum of 
$2,607,491,866 annually taken from the public 
comfort and expended in wretchedness and crime 
— in the presence of all these fearful facts, I call 
upon you, in this day of probation, in this house 
of God, by the absolute need of prompt action, by 
the utter failure of indecision, by the worse than 
failure of many substitutes, and by the right of self* 
preservation ; I call upon you, in the name of the 
countless victims who are bound in this wretched 
habit, in the name of the wearying, watching mo- 
thers whose sons are imperilled, in the name of some 
young men here to-night who may yet wreck all 
beauty for time and all hope for eternity, in the 
name of some fair and hopeful maidens here to- 
night who may yet mourn and pine in the squa- 
lor and misery of the drunkard's hovel, in the 
name of earth desolated and heaven forfeited by 
this crime, and in the name of Almighty God, 
whose eye is upon us, and at whose judgment-bar 
we must shortly stand — 1 call upon you to maintain 
and enforce this law at all costs ! Out of these 
awful responsibilities we cry from our hearts for 
ever and for ever, " Everlasting war against rum, 
and eternal death to alcohol !** 



Drinking for Health. 



" Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stom^ch't, 
sake and thine often infirmities." — i Tim. v. 23. 

TIMOTHY was a temperance man. He 
would not use anything in the shape of 
liquor, from fear of self-injury and hindering the 
Gospel he preached. So abstemious was be that 
it required a positive command from his spiritual 
father to induce him to touch even wine. 

Paul was a temperance man. He was so care- 
ful as to his example that he would refrain from 
eating '' meat " if it caused a weak brother to 
stumble. And, no doubt (so anxious was he that 
Timothy should be '' blameless "), he had enjoined 
upon his son in the Gospel the strictest temper- 
ance. But now, as his health was giving way, he 
exhorted him to use ''no longer water \pnly\ but 
a little wine," 

Ani what was this " wine ''f Was there alcohol 
in it ? Probably none at all. Investigation has 
of late been very thorough as to the wines of the 
Bible; and the conclusion reached is that they 
may be divided into two distinct classes — the 
harmless and the pernicious, or the unfermented 
and the fermented. 



298 Drinking for Health. 

All the principal Biblical critics who have 
made the study of this subject a specialty, have 
reached the result expressed by Professor Moses 
Stuart : " My final conclusion is this, namely, that, 
whenever the Scriptures speak of wine as a com- 
fort, a blessing, or a libation to God, and rank it 
with such articles as corn and oil, they mean — 
they can mean — only such wine as contained no 
alcohol that could have a mischievous tendency ; 
that, wherever they denounce it, prohibit it, and 
connect it with drunkenness and revelling, they 
can mean only alcoholic or intoxicating wine. If 
I take the position that God's Word and works 
entirely harmonize, I must take the position that the 
Bible before us is such as I have represented it to be. 
. . . Icannotrefuse to take this position without 
virtually impeaching the Scriptures of contradic- 
tion or inconsistency." 

Now, would Paul have advised the use of fer- 
mented and intoxicating wine ? Did he not know 
what Philo, Aristotle, Pliny, and other credible 
authorities, nearly contemporary with himself, tell 
us, namely, that " intoxicating wines were dele- 
terious to health, and produced headaches, 
dropsy, madness, dysentery, and stomach com- 
plaints ; while other wines were salubrious and 
medicinal, and particularly commended for en- 
feebled and diseased stomachs " ? How absurd 
to suppose that Paul would recommend Timothy 
to use poisonous wines, when the unfermented and 
harmless were every way better ! In any view 
of the case, however, here is cold comfort for 



Drift king for Health. 299 

^ine-bibbers ; for even if there were a moiety of 
alcohol in the drink recommended, yet it was 
to be used strictly as a medicine, and Tim- 
othy was expressly ordered to take it by an in- 
spired apostle. I agree with another, that '* as the 
recommendation here was not for gratification, 
but for medicine, and to Timothy personally, a 
sick man, and only a little at that, it gives no 
more countenance for the beverage use of wine 
for any one, and especially for those in health, 
than does the prescription of castor-oil by the 
physician for the beverage use of that article." 

But what shall be said of the drinkijtgfor health 
which is now so common? Few are aware of its 
prevalence. The use of '' pure wine," as it is 
called, has been put forward as a preventive 
of intemperance; and ** mild stimulants" and 
" healthful tonics" are dabbled with by thousands 
to-day who a few years ago knew nothing of 
their use 

Our homes are becoming fountain-heads of 
drunkenness. Wines and other drinks are on the 
tables, not only on special occasions, but regularly ; 
and wives, mothers, and sisters, instead of frown- 
ing upon their use, encourage it by their ex- 
ample. Indeed, the increase of intemperance 
among women themselves, both in England and 
America, is becoming alarming. A recent article 
in one of our secular papers says : 

** It is worth our while to see how this matter 
stands. There is such a sense of chivalry towards 
the weaker sex and faith in their purity among 



300 Drinking for Health, 

Americans, that a statement that drunicenness ex- 
isted to any appreciable amount among educated 
women would be received with disgust and 
incredulity. Yet there are certain facts which it 
is high time should be taken at once into the 
gravest consideration by both the pulpit and the 
press. To physicians they are, unfortunately, but 
too familiar. Among these is the too large pro- 
portion of female patients in insane asylums who 
have become so from the use of stimulants. The 
American fashionable woman, as we all know, 
drinks often, at her own table, wines of a strength 
which her European sister would not dare to 
touch. She ' mixes her liquors/ too ; in her teens 
is a connoisseur of champagne, delicately sips 
sherry-cobblers and Roman punches; and all 
this with her in-door life, her limp constitu- 
tion, her bilious habit, and under climatic influ- 
ences which, to the strongest man, make alco- 
hol a poison. There are certain quiet ' ladies* 
restaurants ' in all the seaboard cities, so quiet 
and modest in appearance that gentlemen are n.^^t 
tempted into them, where respectable women 
resort for the stimulant which is probably inac- 
cessible at home. Deaths from mania apotti have 
occurred this winter, and that not in the debased 
lower classes, but among cultured, delicately- 
reared women ; some of them young, generous, 
lovable girls. The baby at the breast is dosed 
nightly with soothing syrups ; the sickly school- 
girl has her ' drops ' night and morning ; while 
for the innumerable ailments of the married 



Drinking for Health, 301 

woman there is a mantet-shelf full of tonics, 
elixirs, and bitters, German and native, all war- 
ranted '■ free from a drop of alcohol mixture.' " 

I wish that church-members and so-called tem- 
perance people were not among these tipplers. 
But many such are tampering with strong drink. 
How common it is for gentlemen in the chop- 
houses and restaurants to call for liquor at lunch, 
while at home they daily use wine or ale " as a 
medicine " — of course ! Not a few pastors must say 
ivith one, " The deepest anxiety I feel for several 
of my flock is, lest they fall under the do- 
minion of the cup, which is a mocker, and which 
upsets a Christian's brain just as soon as any 
one's." 

Now, what is the cause of this drift towards 
drinking for health ? And who is directly respon- 
sible for it ? Three parties are chiefly blamable ; 
viz., the regular medical profession ; the irre- 
gular or "quack" medicine venders; and the 
people themselves. 

I. Heavy blame attaches to authorized medicai 
practitioners. — The great Dr. Rush declared 
that " no man should be able to say that he made 
him a drunkard by recommending spirits." 
Would that this could be said generally by physi- 
cians ! The medical profession enrolls great num- 
bers of self-denying, philanthropic, learned, and 
conscientious men — never so many as now ; and I 
am glad to say many of them are among the 
stanchest advocates of temperance, both in theory 
and practice. But still beyond question, the 



302 Drinking for Health, 

injudicious and indiscriminate recommendation 
by physicians of alcohol as medicine and a bever- 
age is a principal source of prevailing intemper- 
ance. Forty years ago, Dr. Pye Smith said that 
" the permissions of some medical men, too careless 
of physical and 7noral results, have given great im- 
pulse to spirit-drinking, and have caused an esti- 
mate to be attached to spirituous liquors beyond 
their value as a medicinal drug." Since then 
the evil has gone on increasing, until we have 
a sort of medical epidemic in spirit-drinking 
for sanitary purposes. Mr. Beecher's statement 
of the case is scarcely extravagant: 

*' Doctors, like every social body, are subject to 
tides of fashion ; and just now the tide sets very 
strong in the direction of alcoholic stimulants 
— particularly of Bourbon whiskey. Everybody 
has, first or last, one of three complaints. Every- 
thing is either neuralgia, or heart-complaint, o» 
dyspepsia, with the doctors ; and Bourbon whiskey 
seems to be the great wholesale stimulant. The 
minister whose nervous system is deranged by 
too close application to his professional duties 
drinks Bourbon whiskey — the doctor told him to. 
The merchant who has overtaxed his powers of 
body and mind by confining himself night and day 
to his business drinks Bourbon whiskey — his 
physician told him to. The lawyer whose brain 
is perpetually at work, and intensely at work, 
drinks Bourbon whiskey — his doctor told him to. 
Eierybody that feels bad is drinking Bourbon whiskey 
under vtedical prescription ! The indiscriminate 



Drinking for Health, 303 

and almost universal prescription of it, I know, 
cannot be right. I think that matter has gone 
full as far as fashion will justify, and that physi- 
cians should begin to hold back, and to discrimi- 
nate, and to make fewer cases in which fhis all- 
healing remedy is applicable. Otherwise, under 
the cover of a medical prescription, we are going 
to have a deluge of whiskey on the land again ; 
for as soon as it is found out that the physician 
prescribes whiskey for everything, men will not 
go to him any more, but will buy it in large quan- 
tities and at wholesale rates, and administer it 
themselves !" 

At a late annual meeting of the Pennsylvania 
Medical Society, Doctors H. Carson and W. W. 
Townsend, in a written report to the society, said : 

" Every physician whom we know personally, 
and all of whom we have heard, use and recom- 
mend the use of alcoholic liquors in some form in 
their practice. The great majority use them 
freely, in trifling as well as in grave cases ; in the 
cases of drunkards as well as total-abstinence peo- 
ple ; on the child of a day and the parent of three- 
score and ten. They prescribe them in diseases 
of the kidneys, lungs, heart, brain, stomach, and 
every other organ, and yet they know full well 
that diseases of those organs have been produced 
thousands of times by those very agents. They 
recommend them to the weak and the dyspep- 
tic ; the aged because they are aged, and the 
young because they are young; the nursing 
mother because of the drain on her system 



^04 Drinking for Health. 

(natural though it be and healthful); to those 
who are given up as hopeless because they 
are dying, and to the convalescent because they 
are convalescing, and they cannot forego the 
opportunity to show them how porter, ale, or 
whiskey will * build them up.' The effect of such 
a course is to impress the community with a high 
opinion of the valuable medicinal, life-giving pro- 
perties of alcoholic liquor." 

It is well for all to know that by eminent physi- 
cians this dosing with stimulants is thoroughly dis- 
countenanced and denounced as an outrage. I 
could readily bring forward a long list of high 
medical authorities who hold that prescription 
here ought to be /r^scription ! If your doctor 
orders you to take stimulants, it is of no disadvan- 
tage to you to be aware that other physicians 
would order you to throw them into the fire ! 
There is not such uniformity of opinion here as 
to justify your blind adherence to medical advice. 
Hear what physicians themselves say. I give 
you a few quotations from their written testi- 
monies. Beginning at home, listen to what one of 
your own townsmen has said : " I am a physi- 
cian. Medical men, you say, occupy towards the 
subject of temperance a position that is profes- 
sional and peculiar. Doubtless this is so. Know- 
ing what they do, there are responsibilities rest- 
ing upon them solemn as death. I shudder aK 
most to think what mischievous potency there is 
sometimes in a mere touch of their finger. Many 
a credulous wretch, tottering on the verge of the 



Drinking for Health. 305 

abyss, has thereby been pushed headlong-. T he 
crude utterance of some rash oracle of medicine 
has dug many a grave, and kindled many a fire, 
unquenchable as nell." * 

Says Dr. Charles Jewett : '* A fruitful source 
of error, and often, it is to be feared, of fatal 
mischief, is the almost unquestioning credence 
given by the masses to the opinions of their fam- 
ily physician, without stopping to consider how 
far those opinions may be influenced by his 
habits, associations, and unreasoning prejudices. 
Personally, T have no doubt but that tens of thou- 
sands annually in this country are hurried out of 
existence by the uncalled-for and mistaken use 
of wine and brandy. No one but a physician of 
pretty extensive observation, and one personally 
free from the influence of alcoholic liquors, can 
fairly estimate the amount of mischief caused by 
the almost indiscriminate prescription of such 
liquors under the general but false notion that 
they are tonic or possessed of supporting power." 

Dr. Carpenter, an eminent physiologist and 
physician, says : " Nothing in the annals of 
quackery can be more truly empirical than the 
mode in which fermented liquors are directed or 
permitted to be taken by a large proportion of 
medical practitioners." 

A physician in Edmburgh, alluding to the 
frequent cases of forming an appetite for strong 
drink by its prescription, says : " No man who 

* Dr. Abraham Coles, Newark, N. J. 



2o6 Drinking for Health. 

knows the effects of this liquor, as they are now 
in thousands of cases existing, can possibly 
f doubt that multitudes had better have died a 
hundred deaths than been ensnared as they have 
been by means of it." 

You see, then, that there is ground for hesi- 
tancy before you accept the advice and follow 
the prescription of a physician recommending" 
wine, ale, or brandy for yourself or a dependent. 
Believe me, the remedy in this case is often- 
times worse than the disease; and you may well 
imitate that young American soldier who, when 
exhausted and shivering, was presented by his 
officer with a glass of wine, but said : '' No, sir, 
thank yoM ; I would rather face all the cannon of 
the enemy than take that liquor." 

And, if I here address a physician not thorough- 
ly " booked," let me ask him to consider a few 
facts bearing upon this subject. Dr. Gairdner, 
of Glasgow, speaking of the cases of young per- 
sons afflicted with typhus fever, and treated al- 
together without alcohol, states that out of 189 
cases only one died, and that one was in a dying 
state when admitted to the hospital. If those 
cases had been treated with a small amount of 
alcohol, as practised in Glasgow in the years 
1 861 and 1862, he shows that six or seven would 
have died. Had they received the greater 
amount of alcohol given in Glasgow in 1847, ^^'^^^ 
would have died. Had they received the still 
larger amount of this poisonous liquor given in 
the London Hospital, nearly twelve would have 



Drinking for Health. 307 

died. Had they been in the hands cf Dr. Todd, 
" who advocated alcohol in typhus in the highest 
degree," Dr. Gairdner shows that not less than 
thirty to thirty-five of them would have gone to 
their graves ! This is a fair specimen of Dr. 
Gairdner's carefully and far too cautiously stated 
results, as demonstrated in his tables of statistics 
and his reasoning on them. Instead of really no 
deaths among 188 patients treated without 
alcohol altogether, you have at least thirty 
young persons sent into eternity by its 
use ! 

In 1864, the venerable surgeon of Nottingham, 
England, Dr. Higginbottom, published a res7ime 
of his experience, in which he says : 

" For about thirty years I have not once pre- 
scribed alcohol as a medicine ; so that I have now 
fully tried both ways, with and without alcohol ; 
and I am now fully of opinion that a more dis- 
honest or cruel act cannot be inflicted on a 
patient than to prescribe or order alcohol as a 
medicine. So strongly am I convinced, that I 
should consider myself criminal if I again recom- 
mend alcohol, either as food or medicine." 

He adds : *' During my long practice, I have not 
known or seen a single disease cured by alcohol ; 
on the contrary, it is the most fertile producer of 
disease, and may be considered the bane of medi- 
cine and the seed of disease. It is destitute of 
any medicinal principle implanted by the Creator 
in genuine medicines. " I have found acute 
disease sooner cured without alcohol, and chro- 



3o8 Drinking for Health, 

nic disease much more manageable. *' I have 
never seen a patient or any person injured 
by leaving off alcoholic fluids at once. I should 
as soon expect, as a Dr. Scott has said, * kill- 
ing a horse by leaving off the whip and spur. 
I have not heard from my professional brethren, or 
from any of my patients, that my non-alcoholic 
treatment of disease has occasioned a single death. 
My greatest trouble has been, for many years, in 
preventing patients from being destroyed by the 
use of it. I do not say the abuse, for I co7isider the 
use the abuse. " No person can form any idea, 
except from experience, of the superiority of 
the practice of medicine and surgery when alco- 
nol is banished from it." 

Dr. L. M. Bennet, M.R.C.S., says: 

" I believe there is no curable disease (chronic 
or acute) but what may be treated and cured 
better without alcohol than with it. . . . During 
the last twenty-five years, I have not once used it as a 
medicine or recommended it as a beverage ; and, al- 
though I have had great experience in the treat- 
ment of dyspepsia, fever, exhaustion from the loss 
of blood, and profuseness of purulent discharges, 
I have found all those complaints and conditions 
much more easily removed without alcohol. . . . 
From all the observation and experience I have 
had for a period of thirty years, I have come to 
this conclusion — that intoxicating drinks in any 
quantit}^ however small, are unnecessary to main- 
tain health ; that they are neither necessary nor 
desirable to support the frame under excitement. 



Drinking for Health. 3CX) 

nor to recruit it when exhausted ; that, when a r.e- 
cessity exists for the use of a stimulant in the treat- 
ment of disease, a safer ^ more certain^ and effectual 
substitute can be found ; that the mortality in dis- 
ease will always be in proportion to the amount of 
alcohol used in the treatment, and that the entire 
disuse of it as a medicine would prove highly 
beneficial to mankind." 

My limits forbid reference to other authorities 
to the same effect, 

2. Passing from the medical profession proper, 
I speak of the irregular or quack doctors as respon- 
sible for the tippling- habits of the day. They 
have flooded the country with their decoctions 
under the names of Cordials, Tonics, Strengthen- 
ing Bitters, Buchu, Plantation Bitters, Schiedam 
Schnapps, Liebfrauenmilch, Lachryma Christi, 
Santa Cruz, Golden Bitters, and the like, which 
they blazon forth everywhere with a prodigal 
waste of money. Almanacs and other pamphlets 
are thrust under the door-sills, and distributed 
from country-stores, filled with glowing descrip- 
tions and certificates of" remarkable cures "; and to 
read of these " scientifically prepared stimulants," 
" wholesome cordials," " tonic alteratives," "" life- 
reviving bitters," " pure and genial restoratives," 
and the catalogue of the ills for which they are a 
sure remedy, one would almost wonder why men 
ever die with such ''elixirs of life" within their 
reach ! 

Now, the simple truth is, the entire catalogue 
of these so called remedies and restoratives sought 



310 Drinking for Health. 

to be palmed off upon the innocent public are vile 
compounds. In many cases they are chiefly bad 
whiskey, and in all cases it is alcohol (without 
being- so-called), which the purchaser swallows ; 
and this is the reason WHY it is swallowed. Though 
often advertised as ''temperance bitters" with 
but "just enough spirits to preserve them," 
they were inert without liquor, and would lack 
consumers. People buy them because they like the 
brandy that is in them ! 

The quantity of these bogus remedies that are 
sold is almost fabulous ; and untold multitudes 
have found their bitters to be biters ! The epitaph 
upon their tombstones might be written (as with 
one poor victim): ''I was well; and I Avould be 
better; and here I lie!" Or living, they have 
found an acquired appetite for strong drink fas- 
tened upon them, which is often worse than 
death. 

I agree with another, that these preparations, 
whose names are paraded on every picturesque 
rock along our great thoroughfares by pandering" 
scoundrels, are rum, rum, rum, with a little some- 
thing added to disguise it. To advertise these 
things is to encourage intemperance ; and to 
suffer them to go unexposed is to leave the 
community the prey of a subtle and most damag- 
ing evil. All these promises of rejuvenation, all 
these pretences of ability to revitalize worn-out 
men, are miserable shams. All these prepara- 
tions for men and women that claim the power to 
do such wonderful things, are scarcely disguised 



Drinking for Health. 31 1 

abominations of intemperance, are fit only for de- 
ception, and are a shame and disgrace to any 
respectable store or respectable family. And it is 
high time that this outrageous hypocrisy ^ under the 
color of medicine, should be exposed, and trod- 
den into the ditch from which it came, and to 
which it belongs. 

3. But, after all, the people themselves are chiefly 
responsible for this growing custom of drinking 
for health. They acquiesce in alcoholic pre- 
scriptions by the medical profession, and support 
by their patronage the villanous compounds 
which would otherwise prove profitless. Mo- 
thers are knowingly giving liquors in some shape 
to their infants (besides taking it themselves), and 
tens of thousands of otherwise sensible people 
have come to believe that they must have some 
strong drink. 

A little must be taken for '* weakness of the 
stomach," and a " faintness" and '' goneness " of 
feeling when they get up. It must be sipped 
with the lunch and drunk after dinner to " help 
digestion " ; and they must have " a night-cup " 
before they go to bed ! It would be a curious spec- 
tacle if the cellars, vaults, closets, and garrets 
of all the houses around us were to disgorge 
the filled and empty bottles that they contain, 
marked with some inscriptions of porter, ale, wine, 
ionics, bitters, and the hke ! 

Now, assuming that I am speaking to some who 
have not much considered this matter, let me ask 
two questions : 



312 Drinking for Health. 

I. What are you drinking? I have answered 
the question as to the compounds sold for 
strengthening and remedial purposes. 

But how about lager-beer, which has become 
so much of a beverage ? Possibly in its use you 
think you are taking nothing intoxicating. That 
is a mistake. There is alcohol in lager. The 
percentage is small ; but yet it is sufficient to in- 
duce an appetite for something stronger, and to 
do directly an injury to health. A glass of this 
beverage is not as injurious as a glass of whiskey 
or gin, because it contains a far less quantity of 
alcohol ; but an ounce of alcohol is just as hurtful 
when diffused through six glasses of lager as 
when imbibed in two glasses of rum or brandy. 

Says a competent authority : ** The question 
' Does lager-beer intoxicate ' ? is a thing not to 
be argued. I might as well attempt to prove that 
two and two make four. It rs gross and palpable 
to sense. I am amazed at the effrontery — I 
scarcely know a parallel to the audacity — of those 
who deny it." 

Perhaps you say, " I use a little wine'' Very 
likely it is pure wine that you think you are 
using. Are you sure of it? Did not Addison long 
ago tell us of philosophers "daily employed in the 
transmutation of liquors ; and, by the power of mag- 
ical drugs and incantations, raising^ under the streets 
of London, the choicest products of the hills and vaU 
leys of France, and squeeze claret out of the sloe, and 
draw champagne out of an apple''? Who does not 
know that nine-tenths of the wine consumed is 



Drinking for Health. 313 

but brandy (or something worse) under another 
name ? In France and other European countries 
are extensive establishments for the mayiufacture 
of all the choicest varieties of wines ; and you may 
as well know that, when you have paid a round 
price for wines imported direct from the wine-grow- 
ing districts y and in original packages, you are yet 
most likely paying- for what never smelt a grape ! 
I do not say that there are no pure wines ; but I 
say that adulteration is the law, and purity the 
exception ; and that wines are so skilfully "■ doc- 
tored " with well-selected drugs as to escape even 
chemical tests as to their quality. An able writer 
goes so far as to affirm that " wine has become a 
myth, a shadow, a very Eurydice of life. There 
is no such thing, we verily believe, as honest grape- 
juice wine remaining — nothing but a vile compound of 
poisonous drugs ana impurely obtained alcohol ; and 
all our beautiful Anacreontics are merely fables 
like the rest ; for wine hath died out from the 
world, and the laboratory is now the vine- 
yard." 

There is perhaps nearly a hundred times as 
much *' PORT " wine (so called from Oporto) sold 
and drank as can be made from all the grapes 
raised in the region of Oporto, including the 
whole Douro Valley. 

Says a writer : *' If the Douro River were a thou- 
sand miles long instead of only sixty, it could 
not furnish grapes enough to make all this ocean 
of ' port ' wine. The whole world of fashionabh. 
topers, and invalids, and imbeciles are drinkinp 



314 Drinking for Health, 

wine made out of the little handful of grapes 
grown on the banks of a small creek in Portugal! 
The miracle of feeding five thousand souls from 
* five loaves and a few small fishes ' is as nothing 
compared to this !" 

I spoke of the manufacture of wines abroad ; 
but it should be known that our own country is the 
largest " wine-growing district " in the world ! 
Here are furnished a million times more baskets 
of champagne [with exact imitation of foreign 
brands !] than are put up of the pure juice in all 
the champagne districts of Europe ! By passing the 
oil of whiskey through carbon, a Madeira is made 
at a profit of 500 per cent, which few can tell from 
the genuine. With neutral spirits, or even with 
whiskey, vinegar, sulphuric acid, beet-root, alum, 
lead, logwood, potash, cider, copperas, and the 
like, are produced wines at trifling cost. Of 
these and other wines. New York City annually 
manufactures to the value of $8,000,000: all of 
which are admirably adapted to Timothy's weak 
stomach ! 

" It is a notorious fact," says one of our daily 
journals, "■ that even the California champagnes 
have been driven from the market by * doctored 
wines,' or have themselves been ' doctored ' to 
meet the popular demand. Madeira grows 30,000 
barrels of wine yearly ; and America alone drijiks 
50,000 barrels of * Madeira ' v/ine ! 

Perhaps you drink the " best brandy "/ but 
very unlikely ! A chemist lately analyzed a bot- 
tle of pure brandy [as was alleged], and found in 



Drinkmg for Health, 315 

it alum, iron, sulphuric acid, essential oil of some 
kind, tannic acid, Guinea pepper, burnt ijugar, 
lead, and copper, with a nitric ether, basis of 
whiskey. This is the delicious mixture which, 
by the aid of a pretty label and a little sealing- 
wax on the cork, passes for Old Hennessy, Lon- 
don Dock, Martel, or Seignette brandy. 

Is it whiskey that you take ? 

Some whiskey seized a few days ago in New- 
ton, Mass., was found to be thus compounded; 
Ten gallons of kerosene, three pounds of potash, 
one ounce of strychnine, mixed with soft water. 
Promising stuff to drink for health ! Twenty-five 
per cent, of the alcoholic strength you get in 
whiskey is often but strychnine strength. 

Are you a drinker of porter^ ale, beer f Would 
you could see what becomes of the thousands of 
bags of cocculus indiciis [the rankest poison, 
without any known antidote] imported into this 
country to be used up in breweries ! Would you 
could see the Brewers* Guides and various re 
cipes which the liquor manufacturers keep hid- 
den away ! They would read something like this: 

Ingredients of a Warming Nature, — Pepper 
capsicum, cloves, ginger, spice, vinegar, acetic 
acid, tartaric acid, citric acid, butyric acid, 
cream of tartar, nitric acid or aquafortis, sul- 
phuric acid, prussic acid, sulphuric ether, nitric 
ether, acetic ether, spirits of nitre, oil of vitriol, 
oil of turpentine, oil of cassia, oil of caraway, oil 
of cloves, extract of japonica, extract of bitter 
almonds, extract of orris root, extract of angeli- 



3i6 Drinking for Health. 

can root, grains of paradise, multum, poppy seeds, 
juniper berries, aloes, cochineal, black ants, and 
Spanish juice. 

To give Taste and Astringency. — Bruised rai- 
sins, dried blackberries, dried peaches, dried 
cherries, orange-peel, coriander seed, white oak 
bark, tannic acid, kino, rhatany, catechu, cara- 
way seed, cardamom seed, fennel seed, worm- 
wood, alum, copperas, sulphate of iron, and sul- 
phate of copper. 

For Beers without Malt or Hops. — To pre- 
vent sourness, use sugar, honey, molasses, li- 
corice, alum, opium, gentian, quassia, aloes, 
cocculus indicus, amara, tobacco, and nux, for 
hops ; saltpetre, jalap, salt, maranta, green 
copperas, marble dust, oyster-shells, egg-shells, 
sulphate of lime, hartshorn, shavings, nut-galls, 
potash, soda, etc. 

To correct Unnatural Tastes. — Lime-water, car- 
bonate of lime, carbonate of soda, nitrate of pot 
ash, caustic potash, pearlash, saleratus, sugar o' 
lead, and litharge. 

For Coloring Matters. — Burnt sugar, beet-juice, 
dried apples, dried peaches, elderberries, molasses, 
red Saunders, logwood, and sulphuric acid. 

A pretty list indeed ! 

These facts convey some idea oi what it is that 
you are most likely drinkmg if in the use of 
liquors:— a ''heterogeneous conglomerate of poi- 
Fons, drugs, and dye-stuffs " ! 

I proceed to another question : 

2. Why do you drink ? let me ask Have you 



Drinking for Health. 317 

investigated and properly considered the effects of 
liquor drinking upon health ? 

Think of introducing into the stomach, and into 
all the delicate ramifications of that frame-work 
so fearfully and wonderfully made, the " poisoned 
poisons " and the '■'■ fluid nastiness " which I have 
described ! Nor flatter yourself that your liquors 
are pure, for adulteration, as I have said, is all but 
universal; and the cry of one is well founded, that 
** the people ask for pure spirit, but nauseating and 
maddening and death-dealing stuffs are sold in its 
stead. They ask for stimulants, and are given 
strychnine. They seek exhilaration, and are treat- 
ed to insanity. They crave refreshment and in- 
spiration, and are mocked with inebriety and 
madness." 

But passing this by, what is alcohol itself ? — for 
you will bear in mind that this ingredient is in all 
spirituous liquors [including wine, porter, ale, beer, 
cider, etc.] This makes them spirituous. And 
this alcohol is a poison. It is a poison produced 
by fermentation, i.e. a process of decay, or rot- 
tenness. Dr. Munroe, of England, says : " Alco- 
hol is a powerful narcotic poison; and, if a large 
dose be taken, no antidote is known." And again 
he says : " A small quantity of pure alcohol, in- 
jected into the veins of an animal, has caused 
immediate death ; showing alcohol to be a dan- 
gerous and deadly poison." 

Th-ere is not a medical or chemical authority in 
the world that does not pronounce alcohol to be 
a poison, and one of the deadliest known. 



3i8 



Drinking for Health. 



But you say, '' Are not poisons sometimes usefu 
as medicines [which is granted], and may not my 
health be promoted by its use ?" I have already 
shown that many learned and skilful physicians 
never use it, even as a medicine, and do not con- 
sider that under any circumstances it is necessary 
to health. But let me ask, In what respect are 
you benefited by strong drink in any form ? 

// does not give strength. If you are stronger 
for taking it, it is but excitation for the moment. 
You have irritation, not strength, and you con^ 
sume to-day the capital for to-morrow — ^you run in 
debt to nature : 



" Prodigal of life, in one rash night 
You lavish more than might support three days." 



You are strengthened just- as the whij> streng'th^ 
ens the horse. As if you would give your horse 
the spur that irritates for the corn that feeds ! 

Certainly there is no food in pure alcohol ; no 
one pretends it. How much is there in the beve- 
rages supposed to build up the body and increase 
Vitality ? The following are some of the analyses, 
by chemists, of drinks in common use i 



STRONG ALE. 

oz. grs. 

Water i8 o 

Alcohol 2 o 

Sugar 2 136 

Aoetic acid o 57 



PORT. 

oz. grs. 

Water 16 o 

Alcohol 4 o 

Sugar I 2 

Tartaric acid o So 



Drinking for Health. 



319 



MILD ALE. 

oz. gr. 

^ater 18^ o 

Alcohol 134 o 

Sugar. ............ o 28c 

Acetic acid o 38 

PALE ALE. 

Watsr 18 o 

Alcohol 2 o 

Sugar o 38 

Acetic acid o 40 



BRANDY. 

oz. 

Water 93^ 

Alcohol 103^ 

Sugar O 

Tartaric acid o 

GIN 



o 

o 

80 

120 



Water l6 o 

Alcohol 4 O 

Sugar o^ o 



This must be very nourishing ! 

There is more food in one bushel of barley 
than there is in 12,000 gallons of the best beer. 
So says Baron Von Liebig. He adds : ''■ Beer, 
wine, spirits, etc., furnish no element capable of 
entering into the composition of blood, muscular 
fibre, or any part which is the seat of the vital 
principle." And Dr. T. K. Chambers, who is 
physician to the Prince of Wales, the heir-appa- 
rent to the throne of England — and therefore sup- 
posed to be the first-class physician, says, *' It is 
clear that we must cease to regard alcohol as, in 
any sense, an aliment (a food), inasmuch as it goes 
out (of the body) as it goes in." 

Dr. Lees says: "There is m.ore real nourish- 
ment in a threepenny brown loaf than there is to 
be found in a barrel of Allsopp's ale, containing 
three hundred and sixt3^-five gallons, and costing 

$175 i" 

Liebig says : "" We can prove, with mathemati- 
cal certainty (as plain as two and two make four), 
that as much flour or meal as can lie on the point 



320 Drinking for Health, 

of a table-knife is more nutritious than nine quarts 
of the best Bavarian beer ; that a man who is able 
daily to consume that amount of beer obtains 
from it, in a whole year, in the most favorable 
case, exactly the amount of nutritive constituents 
which is contained in a five-pound loaf of bread 
or in three pounds of flesh." 

*' It is a mistaken notion," says Dr. O'Sullivan, 
" that ale, wine, or spirits communicate strength, 
and it is disgraceful to see medical men endeavor 
to propagate the error." 

Says Mr. Parton : ** When we have taken from 
a glass of wine the ingredients known to be in- 
nutritious, there is scarcely anything left but a 
grain or two of sugar. Pure alcohol, though a 
product of highly nutritive substances, is a mere 
poison — an absolute poison — the mortal foe of life 
in every one of its forms, animal and vegetable. 
If, therefore, these beverages do us good, it is not 
by supplying the body with nourishment." 

Possibly you are of the opinion that alcohol is 
a heat-producing fluid, and you use it for that. 
But this is a fallacy. Says Dr. Lees, '* Alcohol 
cannot possibly yield a single unit of heat to the 
blood. Everybody must see that, as the coals and 
chips that fall out of the grate are not the fuel 
that actually boils the kettle, so a substance like 
alcohol, which is constantly cast out of the bodily 
furnace, cannot contribute to the warming of the 
living house." 

Dr. E. Smith says : ** The action of the skin 
is lessened. It neither warms nor sustains the 



Drinking for Health. 32 1 

body, [though] the sensation of warmth is increas- 
ed. In other terms, alcohol burns the nerves, but 
casts a wet blanket over the vital fire." 

A '* drink," then, to keep off the cold, and the 
" warming- of the stomach " which tipplers speak 
of, are pleasing delusions. Insensibility for the 
time being to external influence is all that is gain- 
ed — not a particle of real warmth. 

Dr. Rae, who made two or three pedestrian 
tours of the polar regions, and whose powers of 
endurance w^ere put to as severe a test as man's 
ever were, is clear and emphatic upon this point. 
Brandy, he says, stimulates but for a few minutes, 
and greatly lessens a man's power to endure cold. 

But you say, " I take a little stimulant to help 
digestion^ Then you are behind the day — you 
are not posted — for the popular fallacy you hold 
is now thoroughly exploded. Do you not pre- 
serve thing3, that is, keep them from dissolution, 
by alcohol, as when you preserve a piece of meat 
or an animal or a reptile in it? But the digestion 
of substances taken for food is the dissolving oi 
them by means of the pepsin or gastric juice fur- 
nished in the stomach for that purpose. And how 
can a thing at the same time prevent and promote 
decomposition or dissolution ; or, if you so call it, 
digestion? This is absurd, and the truth is, that 
stimulants hinder digestion. The stomachs of 
men dying after two days' steady drunkenness 
have been opened, and the food was found wholly 
undigested — preserved^ as snakes are, in alcohol ! 
&^fix gastric juice into crushed meat, and it readily 



$23 ^ Drinking for Health. 

dissolves ; put in beer or wine instead, and it dis- 
solves but little ; put in alcohol, and you preserve it ! 
This tells the story. 

If you say a glass of brandy or light wine gives 
relief 2kiiQv an excessive meal, I will tell you why: 
nat because digestion is aided, but because the 
stomach is narcotized or stupefied. The nerves 
are deadened for the time, and, therefore, you do 
not feel pain. The same is true when a sense of 
hunger and exhaustion from want of food is 
relieved by a drink of spirits. In both cases, a 
few drops of laudanum or a small dose of morphine 
would produce a precisely similar effect ; that is, 
narcotize the gastric nerves, so that oppressive 
cravings, or pain, is not felt. 

In the words of Dr. McCulloch, then, " how 
mischievous is the drinking of alcoholic drinks, 
particularly during or after meals! How absurd 
the popular, and too often medicaly delusion that 
they assist or promote digestion ! And how 
atrocious the quackery of prescribing these drinks 
for such a purpose ! So far from truth is all this, 
that Professors Todd and Bowman, in their great 
standard work on ' The Physiological Anatomy 
of Man,' declare that, ' were not thesg drinks 
rapidly absorbed from the stomach, it would be 
utterly impossible that digestion could go on in 
those who use them.' " 

Even Mr. James Parton says : " With regard to 
this daily drinking of wine and whiskey, by ladies 
and others, for mere debility, it is a delusion. In 
such cases wine is, in the most literal sense of the 



Drinking for Health, 323 

word, a * mocker.' It seems to nourish, but does 
not ; it seems to warm, but does not ; it seems to 
strengthen, but does not. It is an arrant cheat, 
and perpetuates 'the evils it is supposed to alle- 
viate." 

I know it will be said by some to all this, '* But 
I look better, healthier, and am more fleshy for my 
wine, or beer, or whiskey." Ah ! that may be the 
very thing that should alarm you. Do you know 
of a disease called * fatty degeneracy '-r-solid 
muscle turning to fat? The blood and the walls 
of the heart get loaded with fat, and death is 
imminent. It is asserted by a high authority, 
that three-quarters of the chronic diseases in 
England, and a large proportion in America, 
are in some way combined with fatty degene- 
racy, and chiefly with those who use ardent 
spirits. 

Settle it in the mind, then, that no spirituous 
liquors can be conducive to good health. They 
do not give strength ; they do not add warmth to 
the blood ; they do not assist digestion. The best 
trainers strictly forbid their use to those striving 
for the highest physical development; and the 
brute creation are healthy without them. As 
says Dr. Cummings : '' In the natural world, the 
blackbird, thrush, canary, and nightingale drink 
nothing but water, and smoke nothing but fresh 
air. A grove or wood in spring echoes with 
feathered musicians, each a teetotaler, ever sing- 
ing and never dry." 

Preposterous is it to imagine that men wir 



324 Drinking for Health, 

thrive on what no other living thing can be made 
to touch ! 

" Oh ! madness to think use of strongest wines 
And strongest drink our chief support of health ; 
When God, with these forbidden, made choice to rear 
His mighty champion strong above compare, 
Whose drink was only from the limpid brook." 

1 go further, now. All alcoholic drinks ar^ 
positively irijurious. Says Mr. Parton (whom I 
quote simply because he is not, technically so- 
called, a temperance man, and therefore with 
some his testimony may have more weight ) : 
** All that has yet been ascertained of the effects 
of alcohol by the dissection of the body favors the 
extreme position of the extreme teetotalers. A 
brain alcoholized the microscope proves to be a 
brain diseased. Blood which has absorbed alco- 
hol is unhealthy blood — the microscope shows it. 
The liver, the heart, and other organs, which 
have been accustomed to absorb alcohol, all give 
testimony under the microscope which produces 
discomfort in the mind of one who likes a glass of 
wine, and hopes to be able to continue the enjoy- 
ment of it. The dissecting-knife and the micro- 
scope so far have nothing to say for us — nothing 
at all ; they are dead against us." 

Forty-five physicians of Cincinnati have stated 
as folk)ws : '' Ardent spirit is not only unneces- 
sary, but absolutely injurious in a healthful state 
of the system. It produces many, and aggra- 
vates most, of the diseases to which the human 



Drinking for Health, 325 

frame is liable. It is equally poisonous with 
arsenic, operating- sometimes more slowly, but 
with equal certainty." 

''Time would fail me," says Dr. Sewell, " were 
I to attempt an account of half the pathology of 
drunkenness. Dyspepsia, jaundice, emaciation^ 
corpulence, dropsy, ulcers, rheumatism, gout, 
tremors, palpitation, hysteria, epilepsy, palsy, 
lethargy, apoplexy, melancholy, madness, deli- 
rium tremens, and premature old age, compose 
but a small part of the catalogue of diseases pro- 
duced by ardent spirit. Indeed, there is scarcely 
a morbid affection to which the human body is 
liable, that has not, in one way or another, been 
produced by it." 

I know that some habitual drinkers live to old 
age, but it is because they have remarkable con- 
stitutions, and ver} often those who seem to be 
well are fearfully unsound. Were their bodies 
transparent, they would see the footprints of the 
enemy inside long before they are discovered out- 
side. 

And now, let not any one oppose against these 
stubborn facts of modern science the flimsy pleas 
for drinking which were urged in the days of the 
former ignorance which God winked at. 

It hath been said by them of old time, we may 
use all " the good things of God." But investiga- 
tion shows that alcohol is not a thing of God. The 
Creator never made it ! It is not found in all the 
fields of nature. Sir Humphry Davy says of 
alcohol, " It has never been found rpady formed 



326 Drinking for Health. 

in plants." Chaptal says : " Nature never forms 
spirituous liquors ; she rots the grape upon the 
branch, but it is art which converts the juice into 
wine." And if God had made it, it were a " good 
thing " of his only in the sense that arsenic and 
other rank poisons are. Adders and lizzards are 
" good things " of God ; but shall we eat them ? 

It hath been said by them of old time : '' The 
Saviour made wine at the marriage at Cana^ and 
used it at the institution of the Lord's Supper." 
But it never has been proved that the wine v/hich 
Christ made was intoxicating, and never can be. 
It was " good wine," because it was pure and sweet, 
nutritious and harmless. Pliny expressly says 
that a '* good wine was one that was destitute of 
spirits." It was the pure juice of the grape. And 
this was the character of that used at the Supper. 
It is a shame that any intoxicating wine is ever 
brought to the table of the Lord. 

Again it hath been said by them of old time : 
" It is not the moderate use, but the abuse of a 
thing that is to be deprecated." But, as Dr. 
Alden says, ** to a man in health there is no such 
thing as a temperate use of spirits. In any quan- 
ti^ty they are an enemj^ to the human constitution." 
And besides, what is " moderate use " ? How hard 
a thing to define ! More yet, " moderate " use is 
almost certain to become immoderate. A slum- 
bering appetite may be awakened ; and you may 
go on from bad to worse. Well said old Augus- 
tine : ** Drunkenness is a flattering devil, a sweet 
poison, a pleasant sin, which whosoever hath, hath 



Drinking for Health, 327 

not himself— which whosoever doth commit, com- 
mitteth not a single sin, but becomes the centre 
and slave of all manner of sin." 

What unnumbered millions, from simply saying, 
" A little will not hurt one," have come to ruin ! 
The only safe course is total abstinence. More 
yet, your /^;;^/^r^/^ drinking is the chief support 
of drunkenness. O '' respectable " men and 
women ! — and professed followers of Christ ! — -your 
brother's blood cries to you from the ground ! 

" From east to west 
A groan ot accusation pierces heaven. 
The wretched plead against you ; multitudes. 
Countless and vehement, the sons of God 
Your brethren." , 

Granted that you can drink with safety to your- 
self, yet you 7nust meet and answer this question : 
Can you do it with safety to your neighbors ? You 
know you cannot ! And I tell you there is an 
awful accountability mcurred by those who by 
the manufacture, license, sale, or use of liquors 
keep alive the fiend Intemperance, filling this 
world and the next with woe, and 

" Fierce as ten furies — terrible as hell ' 

Let us be rid of such responsibility. I call 
\y^oxv young men to h^ pledged to temperance, and 
to aid in every way in advancing the cause. I 
call w'^oxi professing Christians to VA^Q high ground 
against that evil which leads to the fall of more 
ministers and ch urch-members than all other causes 



328 Drinking for Health. 

combined. I call upon physicians (in the words 
of an honored member of that profession) *' to put 
forth their utmost power to induce a healthier and 
happier relation betwe-en temperance and hygienic 
philosophy than now exists. Let them speak outj 
and first put down the quackery within their pro- 
fession, and then they will find that they have 
more power to put down that which is withouty 

I call upon the rich and the influential to 
beware of the decanter on their tables and side- 
boards. It is a startling- fact that nearly 2,000 of the 
applicants for admission to the Inebriate Asylum 
at Binghamton have been rich mens daughters ! 

I call upon woman to exert in this behalf her 
holy influence. O wives, mothers, sisters, for- 
get not the misery of your sex from strong drink, 
and frown down this curse upon the hom e and the 
social circle. 

And, finally, I call upon every one to forswear 
for ever all that intoxicates, and to help uplift 
everywhere the white banner of temperance, 
•■emembering that word of inspiration : " Nos 

THIEVES, NOR COVETOUS, NOR DRUNKARDS, NOR 
REVILERS, NOR EXTORTIONERS, SHALL INHERIT 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD." 



Scientific Certainties 

{NOT OPINIONS) 

ABOUT ALCOHOL. 



" It biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.**—* 
Prov. xxiii. 32. 

WHAT I know about alcohol by experience 
would make a very short chapter. It would 
be only one word. And that word would be 
nothing. A pledged abstainer from my boyhood, I 
have kept my pledge ; through college ; at those 
enormous feeds called public dinners ; in the West, 
where the only use for water is to run steam- 
boats ; amid the solvents of all restraints in foreign 
lands, where many forget their morals, and re- 
member that the land flows with wine and lager — 
amid it all, I have kept my pledge, and am not 
sorry. '' Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be 
wise." 

But we have other sources of information than 
experience, viz., observation and evidence of 
others. And what we learn by evidence, and 
thus accept by faith, is, to what we know by ex- 
perience, as a thousand to one. 

I propose to put science on this stand to-night, 



33^ Scientific Certainties about Alcohol. 

and let it tell us something about the effect of 
alcoholic drinks upon the human body. I do not 
propose to speak of the unwordable horrors of 
delirium tremens, nor of the nauseous loathsome- 
ness of drunkards, nor of the hopeless slavery of 
men who feel that there is a law of habit, rein- 
forced by desire, in their members stronger than 
their power of will, imposing a servitude under 
which they groan and burn, but from which they 
cannot break. These men are not here to be 
benefited by the recital of their woes. They 
know them infinitely clearer than we can tell 
them. And if their sorrow could be put into 
words, it would be useless ; for it is a well-estab- 
lished fact that very few of them can be perma- 
nently reformed. All men of experience in tem- 
perance reforms testify that am exceedingly small 
percentage of cases supposed to be reformed can 
be regarded as permanent. They have an un- 
quenchable fire within them, and, cover it as you 
may, it breaks out with volcanic energy. There 
is no hope for man in the thickening meshes of 
this habit but in one of two things : the first is 
the converting grace of God, making him a new 
creature : the second is six feet of gravel. 

Neither do I propose to speak of those abom- 
inable compounds of poison and filth that are 
perfectly solvent death insurance agencies. No- 
body ever endorsed, much less drank them. 
None of us ever saw a man who drank any port 
wine that was not made in Oporto. Oh ! no. 
He was confidentially assured of its genuineness 



Scientific Certainties about Alcohol. 331 

by the highly respectable dealer, who was induced 
to part with his rare treasure, not for the man's 
money, but by his needs. 

It was said in England, forty years ago, that 
the only way to get pure port wine was to go to 
Oporto yourself, raise the grapes, press the wine, 
put it into the cask yourself, and ride on it all the 
way home. But the age has grown so much in 
honesty, especially in reference to alcoholic bev- 
erages and the men who deal in them, that one 
can now have full assurance of the purity of wine, 
from the simple word of its respectable dealers. 

The question we wish to consider is, what alco- 
hol does in the living body — alcohol in any wine 
really from Oporto, or innocent of any grape ; in 
any whiskey really from Bourbon County, or, 
having made a voyage to France and back, has 
" suffered a sea change into something rich and 
strange," and is called brandy — what this does in 
the living body. 

If I were to call human witnesses upon the 
stand, and question them, I could get any numbei 
of opinions, endorsing any number or order of 
theories. There are plenty of advocates for the 
use of arsenic — men, and possibly women, who 
declare it to be essential to the highest civiliza- 
tion. Some take enough every day to kill several 
men unaccustomed to its use. But these are 
only individual opinions, and they are worth next 
to nothing. 

Can we produce an unquestionable authority, 
m^ 'suring by a reliable standard, drawing con- 



332 Scientific Certainties about Alcohol. 

elusions no man can gainsay, uttering judgments 
that will be law, though one hundred men who 
feel the halter have no good opinion of it, declar- 
ing perfect truth, though a thousand men's expe- 
rience declare the contrary? Yes, indeed. After 
one hundred men have guessed at the weight of 
a stone, according to their ignorance or wis- 
dom, weakness or strength, put it on the scale, 
and silence every one of them. Never ask a man 
w^ho has the shakes, or who has got out of them 
into fever, what is the temperature. Look at the 
thermometer. And when a man says of wine, " I 
like it, it does me good, could not get along with- 
out it," tell him what he thinks is of little conse- 
quence. What says the standard ? " For there is 
a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end 
thereof are the ways of death." 

So we turn to Science, and ask her if she can 
give us a true answer. She says. Yes. I believe 
it. Science is accustomed to exactness. It^ mea- 
sures to a ten-thousandth of an inch. Astronomi- 
cal measurements are worthless that allow so 
much error. It measures to a millionth of a sec- 
ond. It detects a ten-millionth of a grain diffused 
through a dozen pounds. It can make solid silver 
float invisibly in a transparent fluid, yet its eye 
sees every atom of it, and gathers it to a solid 
again, no particle being lost. As easily can 
science see every particle of alcohol in a living 
bod3^ It tells what the far-off stars are made of; 
much more what is right under its eye. Science 
18 the realm of certainties, not opinions. Theories 



Scientific Certainties about Alcohol. 333 

are not science. It is not a theory that water is 
composed of oxygen and hydrogen : it is a fact. 
And men hang their all and shape their conduct 
from these certainties, in defiance of opinion, their 
own or that of others. Science says, the 
world spins like a top, flies like a rifle-ball, and 
men believe it in defiance of every sense. It 
says water will explode by fire terrifically, and 
men believe it. The captain drives his ship at 
full speed in the blackest night and thickest fog, 
thousands of lives besides his own hanging on his 
act, because science told him at sunset that the 
land would not be reached before morning. And 
if he rushes on ruin, no man blames science, but 
that man's interpretation of it. 

Now, if science can give us any certainties 
about the effect of alcohol on the living body, we 
will depend on them. If it says use it, we will 
use it, in spite of all temperance advocates, teeto- 
tal societies, dictates of fashion, and thunders of 
pulpit or press. If it says refrain, we will refrain, 
spite of the power of habit, the calls of a clamor- 
ing appetite, the interest of innkeepers, the de- 
mands of distillers, the necessities of political ma- 
chinery, the quibbles of quacks, the delusions of 
those doctors who are willing to throw physic at 
us if we throw fees at them. Yes, in spite of the 
charms of Circe and the devices of the devil, we 
will refrain. 

It makes no difference what our experience is. 
That experience is not long enough to make up a 
full account. Something may seem to stand tQ 



334 Siientific Certainties about Alcohol. 

the credit of alcohol, but the debit side cannot be 
made up till we are underground. That is too 
late to be of any use to us. It may serve as a 
terrible example to others. But none of us wants 
to put all our sum total of possibilities into the terri- 
ble example business. We have better use for 
our capital. As was said before, there are plenty 
of men whose experience, in their estimation, tells 
in favor of the daily use of arsenic, opium, and 
absinthe. But we know that experience is not 
ended yet. And when it is, there will be a terri- 
ble balance on the wrong side of the ledger. 
They may be feasters at a royal banquet to-day : 
they will be swine to-morrow. No, neither your 
experience nor mii>e is the standard. Science is. 
And we now lift up the hand, and vow, God being 
our helper, to bring opinion, influence, and prac- 
tice to the true standard. 

Now, what certainties has science on this sub- 
ject ? King Alcohol, you have practised at your 
bar a great while : now stand up at the bar of 
Science, and be acquitted and welcomed, or con- 
victed and banished, according to the evidence. 

Science assures us that alcohol is never changed 
into any other compound in the living body. 
Hence it can never be food or fuel. It is never 
appropriated by any organ for its sustenance. It 
remains alcohol everywhere and always. It is 
alcohol when it goes in, while it stays, and when 
it comes out. The theory that it is in any sense 
food is distinctly disproved, and has been every- 
where abandoned. The theory that it acts as 



Scientific Certainties about Alcohol. 335 

" respiratory food " — proposed by Liebigasa mere 
theory, but never experimented upon by him, the 
theory defended by Governor Andrew for hire, 
long after it had been disproved has been aban- 
doned. The theory of MM. Bouchardat, San- 
dras, and Duchek has been routed, horse, foot, 
and dragoons, by Buckeim's little army of facts. 
The simple truth remains, that alcohol is never 
appropriated to any use in a living organism. It 
goes in an enemy, it remains an enem}'-, it is cast 
out as an enemy, or, too strong, it conquers the 
citadel and destroys the life. 

When a country is invaded, its commerce and 
varied industries must stop, that the invader may 
be cast out. When alcohol invades the kingdom 
of man, digestion, assimilation, and growth njearly 
or wholly stop, that the foe may be routed. 
Swallow a needle, and the system puts it out the 
nearest way ; between the ribs, if it point that 
way ; through the foot, the furthest way, if it point 
thither ; but it puts it out. Swallow alcohol, and 
the system puts it out by every possible way to 
void it. The blood carries it to the lungs, and 
scents the surrounding air for hours with pure 
alcohol. It goes to the kidneys, and they throw 
it out. The whole skin exudes it. The whole 
man smells like a distillery. What cannot be im- 
mediately thrown off is deposited in liver and 
brain, the blood actually refusing to carry it 
when a place of deposit can be found. Pure alco- 
hol that will burn can be collected from liver and 
brain. If more alcohol is forced upon a system 



33^ Scientific Certainties about AlcohoL 

than can be expelled, it puts the system into a 
state of inflammability, that only requires to be 
ignited to be consumed. 

Neither can it be urged that it is only the ex- 
cess, over and beyond what the system can as- 
similate, that is thus thrown off, as in the case of 
food. Not a particle is assimilated, because it 
cannot be found in stomach, blood, breath, urine, 
perspiration, liver, or brain, in any changed con- 
dition : it is alcohol always. If it is only the ex- 
cess that is thrown off, we ask what an appropri- 
ate amount might be ; for a single ounce of 
brandy will set a man exuding alcohol from 
every excretory organ in half an hour. An ordi- 
nary bottle of weak, French wine will keep the 
lungs at work eight, and the kidneys fourteen, 
hours to void the excess. Of course it is impos- 
sible to collect and measure every atom thus dis- 
charged, but the amount actually collected has 
so nearly equalled the amount drank as to justify 
the conclusion that no particle was appropriated 
to permanent use. 

If, then, men will insist on paying from five cents 
a glass to fifteen dollars a bottle for compounds 
to pour on the ground and into the air, it becomes 
important to inquire whether he had better make 
a filter of his body through which to do it. 

The fact, that two and a half ounces of alcohol 
injected into the stomach of a dog will kill him 
about as quick as a rifle-ball, and a pint of its 
dilution, called rum, has about the same effect on 
a man, adds interest to the investigation. 



Scientific Certainties about Alcohol. 2>^7 

We now invoke science, that seems to have an 
almost omniscient eye tracing matter through 
all its protean changes, through solids, liquids, 
gases, visible and invisible, ponderable and im- 
ponderable, to tell us what alcohol does in the 
living body. It responds, first, negatively. It 
has no power to digest food. Put a pound of 
raAv beef into alcohol for twelve hours, and it 
loses four ounces of water, but the beef is simply 
hardened, and no approximation made toward 
digestion. So well known is this fact, that fishes 
and snakes are put into alcohol to preserve them 
indefinitely from decay. A cask of snakes, toads, 
etc., was forwarded, a few years ago, from Oregon 
to the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. On the 
way, the sailors, who were very fond of grog and 
not very delicate about its previous associations, 
drew off the liquor and drank it. ' A deceased 
English admiral was once returned home in a 
cask of spirits. On the way, the sailors were 
constantly drunk. The utmost vigilance of the 
officers failed to discover their source of supplies. 
At length, one of the tipsy sailors let out the se- 
cret by saying, *' We have tapped the Admiral." 
Do not shudder at that; for, if the published 
receipts of liquor manufacturers have any 
truth, such liquors are clean, compared with that 
which is set before men and women in the homes 
of elegance to-day. 

Now, who supposes that the fluid which would 
prevent snakes and men from digestion in the 
cask would digest food in men ? 



338 Scientific Certainties about AlcohoL 

Neither does alcohol ever assist digestion by 
causing a greater flow of gastric juice, or by any 
other means. You have all heard of St. Martin, 
the man with an extra hole in his stomach, and of 
Dr. Beaumont, who peered in through this hole 
upon some of the most secret operations of the 
inner man. It was then seen that even the small 
amount of alcohol in a glass of beer retarded di- 
gestion. The flow of gastric juice was arrested, 
and the c)rgan sought to protect itself against the 
liquid fire by exuding an enlarged supply of 
mucus as a sheathing. He saw the stomach give 
immediate evidence of inflammation on the intro- 
duction of spirit. It flushed fiery red like the 
tell-tale face of an angry man. Possibly the sto- 
mach was vehemently angry at such treatment. 
He says, after drinking hard every day for eight 
or ten days, 4;he stomach would show alarming" 
appearances of disease, and yet the man would 
only feel a slight headache, and a general dul- 
ness and languor. Were the stomach as able to 
report its condition as the inflamed eye, few men 
could endure many glasses of spirit. But feeling 
is no guide. 

These observations of his have been signally 
confirmed by posthumous examinations. We 
herewith present representations of the stomach 
in health and in disease. 

The opening in the first shows the inside with 
a delicate peach bloom, like the cheek of beauty 
and health. The second shows a section of the 
same inside surface, after moderate drinking 



Scientific Certainties about Alcohol, 339 

Every vein is inflamed and injected -with, blood 
like a blood-shot eye. The third shows the 
greater inflammation of the drunkard, with dead- 
ened blue spots of incipient ulcer. In the fourth 
we observe the veins have been covered with 
ulcerous exudation. The fifth shows a surface 
torn, as it were, by violence, and partially repaired 
by vital energy. It looks like the volcano-rent 
surface of the moon, or the cicatrices of half- 
healed wounds. The sixth has the blackness and 
putrefaction of death before death comes. " An 
enemy hath done this." Who could expect 
efficient work from an organ thus abused ? Not 
only can it not freely yield gastric juice, but the 
least degree of alcohol mixed with gastric juice 
diminishes its digestive power. Some dogs have 
made themselves valuable by laying down their 
lives in the cause of science One was killed 
some hours after taking five ounces of meat and 
one and one-fourth ounces of proof spirit. The 
meat had not begun to digest. Dr. Figg found 
that the process of digestion had not commenced 
twenty-four hours after the reception of food in 
people who had kept themselves drunk during 
that time. It is impossible to nourish the body 
till this enemy is cast out. 

Neither is alcoholic drink a source of strength. 
Trainers of men for feats of strength invariably 
forbid all kinds of ale, beer, porter, wine, rum, 
brandy. They cast out the whole legion of devils 
at once. Dr. Brinton says, " A moderate dose of 
beer or wine would, in most cases, at once dimin- 



340 Scientific Certainties about Alcohol. 

ish the weight which a healthy man could lift be- 
low his teetotal standard." Milo, the Samson 
of Italy, and his forerunner, the Samson of Ju- 
dea, were both total abstainers. This is small 
comfort for weak backs and weak heads that try 
to strengthen themselves with bitters, cordials, 
and wines. The only use for them is when one 
has too much strength and can find no possible 
use for it. Then alcohol may be safely recom- 
mended to reduce it with rapidity truly astonish- 
ing. 

Neither is alcohol a producer of heat. I might 
quote volumes of testimony from experience in 
Canadian and Russian winters, from travellers 
on Arctic and Antarctic ice, to show that alcohol is 
death to men exposed to a temperature ranging 
toward loo^ below zero. But that would be ex- 
perience, and we are not willing to take anything 
that has a shade of uncertainty about it just yet. 
We have too huge a pledge pending to take any 
body's experience or opinion. What is fact? 
Here comes Science, thermometer in hand, and 
she shows that alcohol actuall}^ reduces the temper- 
ature of a body receiving it. That is what we 
wanted to know. And now we know it. If we 
were receiving testimony and not mathematical 
certainties, we would produce the testimony of 
Sir Charles Napier, and a host of surgeons in 
the East Indian army, that alcohol is equally 
death for men who have to face the heat of a 
tropical sun. But since we are not willing to in- 
troduce anything that any man can gainsay or 



Scientific Certainties about AlcohoL 34 1 

pretend to contradict, we will return to our cer- 
tainties. 

Let any constant abstainer draw off a little of 
his blood, and microscopically compare it with 
the blood of the recent drinker, and he will be 
confirmed in his abstinence. The one is full of 
bright, round, electric disks of life. The other 
has bedraggled fibres, pale in color, shapeless in 
form, deprived of power to absorb oxygen and 
eliminate carbon — a devitalized condition of the 
life-giving fluid that must result in a devitalized 
condition of the tissues it feeds. The pipes that 
supply the city with water are no longer filled 
with bright, sparkling water from the sky-kissing 
hills, but a turgid stream from the dye-houses, 
distilleries, slaughteries, and the sewers of the 
cities above us is offered to our lips. 

Another certainty. Lallemand and Perrin 
proved that a small dose of alcohol would cause 
globules of fat, clearly distinguishable by the 
naked eye, to float in the blood. The result is 
another clear change in the constitution of this 
vital fluid. This fat is deposited instead of real 
muscle, producing what is called fatty degener- 
ation. Take your microscope again, and examine 
a very fine section of a temperate man's muscle. 
It is firm, elastic, of bright-red color, in parallel 
fibres, with beautiful crossings. That muscle 
means business, and is able to do it. Now, take a 
similar section of a man who indulges in intoxi- 
cating drinks, and you see at once a pale, inelastic, 
flabby, oily aspect. Fat has displaced fibre. This 



342 Scientific Certainties about AlcohoL 

especially takes place in the involuntary muscles, 
such as the heart and those concerned in breath- 
ing. After such degeneration, it is not strange 
that the heart should stop its work mid-beat and 
never act again. It requires no excitement, no 
sudden shock, for that mass of fat, that ought to 
be muscle, to cease responding to nervous influ- 
ence, and so cease working. It may be in the 
street, in quiet conversation, and especially in 
sleep, this man, a picture of health, suddenly dies, 
and men say, " What a mysterious dispensation 
of Providence!" We had better say, **. What 
a dispensation of — the other one !" Or better 
sciU, " What an inevitable result of taking intoxi- 
cating drinks !" 

Let us continue our consideration of certainties. 
By actual measurement, it is found that alcohol 
has twice the tendency to the brain that it has to 
any other organ. You can tell the brain of the 
drinker the instant you put knife to it. Alcohol 
and alcoholic induration are found in different parts 
of the brain in different individuals. Now, a brain 
is divided into — i. A cerebrum, by which man per- 
ceives, remembers, judges, wills, and dictates 
movements ; 2. A sensorium, which takes note 
of all impressions on organs of sense ; 3. The 
cerebellum, which regulates and equilibriates 
locomotion. And, 4. The medulla oblongata^ 
which directs and excites respiration. Now, man 
shows incapacity from the lowest degree up to 
absolute stupefaction, according as one or more 
parts of the brain are congested and incapacitated 



Scientific Certainties about Alcohol. 343 

by the deadly agent. Some are clear-headed, 
when an affected cerebellum refuses power to 
walk; some have an unconquerable desire to burn 
houses, steal, or murder, according to the organ 
affected. Indeed, " mental acuteness, accuracy of 
perception, and delicacy of senses are so far op- 
posed by the action of alcohol, that the maximum 
efforts of each are incompatible with the inges- 
tion of any moderate quantity of fermented 
liquid." Which is Dr. Brinton's elaborate Eng- 
lish for. You can do nothing nice when drunk, 
even in the least degree, and you are terribly 
liable to commit murder, arson, robbery, libel, 
etc., which are far from nice. 

Again, a proper dose of alcohol brings instant 
death by its action on the nerves. That is a cer- 
tainty. You can try it, but never will try it but 
once. Now, smaller doses have a proportional 
effect on the nerves. If you only want to tremble 
with palsy — to feel every nerve a line of lire, take 
only wine cordial. If you want to '^ see more 
devils than vast hell can hold," try something 
stronger, and oftener. It will come, and may last 
for ever. 

I here close my certainties about alcohol. I 
allow no man to dispute one of them, They are 
all sure as a two-foot rule, ponderable as pig-iron, 
inevitable as the tax collector. We make no 
allowance for varieties of constitution, peculiari- 
ties of temperament, diversity of habit, differences 
of alcoholic concomitants. These conclusions are 
sure as fate, viz. : Alcohol never digests food, 



344 Sciefitific Certainties about Alcohol. 

noi helps digest it ; never assists the body to 
pel manently resist cold ; brings no increase of 
strength ; vitiates the blood ; emasculates the 
muscles; indurates the brain ; harms the nerves : 
never acts as food, either alimentary or respira- 
tory, but is always and everywhere a poison, in 
sickness, and in health, and the vital powers try 
their utmost to throvv^ it off, even to the extent of 
perishing in the attempt. Now, these are facts, 
not opinions ; certainties, not deductions No 
man can gainsay them. Neither are there any 
counter-facts. 

Do you ask me if there is no room for alcohol 
as a medicine ? That is quite beyond my ability 
to answer. Every imaginable thing has been 
crammed down human throats under the delusive 
idea that it is medicine. 1 have a receipt for 
" A famous spirit made out of human skulls," war- 
ranted to cure every ill that flesh is heir to. But 
the inventor of it died two hundred years ago. 
And we have all known of famous spirit that has 
been distilled into human skulls that proved a 
panacea for every good that flesh is heir to. 
Since there are no certainties about the possible 
usefulness of acohol as a medicine, we will exam- 
ine the most recent opinions of doctors. The 
most trustworthy of them have given up its use- 
lulness, except in two instances. 

It seems to be proved, by the history of the 
Parker family in Massachusetts, that a tendency 
to pulmonary consumption is checked by keeping 
a man always intemperate, and often drunk. I 



Scientific Certainties about AlcohoL 345 

presume that would be the case. He would be 
preserved in spirit. Alcohol is confessedly an 
" arrester of metamorphosis." But my opinion 
is, that the man had better get ready and die. I 
should prefer it for myself and for my friends. 

The other instance is that of a man who has 
had an intermittent fever. The disease is spent. 
The vital forces will go down to zero at six 
o'clock, and the man die; but if he escape dying 
at six o'clock, his vital force would be two above 
zero at seven o'clock. In that case, alcohol, as a 
stimulant, may be given at six o'clock, thus bor- 
rowing one from the vital force at seven o'clock, 
and so escape utter bankruptcy of life by heavily 
discounting the future. Well, perhaps we might, 
but it is only an opinion, and no certainty after 
all. 

What we especially desire you to observe here 
is, that, from calling spirit **the water of life," one 
hundred years has proved it to be the lire of 
death, and physicians confess it in all but these 
two instances. If we will be content to wait till 
such an exigency arises, few of us will know the 
power that biteth like a serpent and stingeth like 
an adder. 

Having thus admitted a brace of opinions, 
allow me to come down from things mathematical, 
sure, and minutely measurable, and introduce a 
single deduction on the other side, which has, 
nevertheless, all the force of a demonstration. 
That drinkers of all grades are a terribl}^ vitiated 
lot of humanity is seen in the sureness with which 



346 Scientific Certainties about AlcohoL 

contagious diseases smite them down. '* Four- 
fifths of those who were swept away by the 
dreadful visitation of the cholera, in 1832, were 
addicted to intoxicating drinks." Drunkards and 
tipplers were searched out with such unerring 
certainty as to show that the arrows of death 
were not indiscriminately flung. In St. Peters- 
burg and Moscow, the whole population ceased 
to drink spirit, so sure were they that they drank 
death. Out of 1,200 attacked in Montreal, not a 
drunkard recovered. Out of a thousand deaths, 
only two were members of a temperance soci- 
ety. And at that time every temperate person 
was a member. Of 30,000 victims in Paris, near- 
ly every one was a user of intoxicating liquors. 
Nine-tenths of those who died in Poland were of 
the same class. In some towns every drunkard 
Avas swept away. Monsieur Huber saw 2,160 per- 
sons perish in twenty-five days in a town in Russia. 
He says : " Persons given to drinking were swept 
away like flies." In Tiflis, containing 20,000 inha- 
bitants, every drunkard fell. Dr. Sewall stated 
that, of 204 cases of cholera in the Park Hospital, 
New York, there were only six temperate per- 
sons, and they recovered. Out of 366 who died 
in Albany, 326 were habitual drinkers, while of 
those who drank no spirit whatever there were 
only seven. If you want to be insured against 
the cholera, you can find plenty of offices that 
will do it, not societies to pay you something 
after you have died of it, but to insure you against 
having it. You will find these offices anywhere 



Scientific Certainties about Alcohol. 347 

they give you a chance to sign the pledge. And 
if you want to be insured to die of it, there are plen- 
ty of offices glad to do it. And they will insure 
you, if you don't want to die of it, if you go there. 
Y >u will find the office easily. There is one in 
any liquor-store. It makes little difference 
whether it be Bedford Street or Chestnut Street, 
the insurance is about the same. 

Having thus considered the indisputable cer- 
tainties about alcohol (not including the last two 
items), it is time to determine our future line of 
conduct, for consideration is vain without deter- 
mination. Surely, knowing that alcohol is evil, 
only evil, and that continually, what shall we do 
about it? Why, for every one who has seen 
these certainties, there are but two things possi- 
ble. First, banish the wine-cup, dash it away at 
once and for ever. And that is just what you and 
I now do, my friends. And let all the people say 
amen. The only other way is to say, '' I confess 
the certain injury, but I like the rare exhilaration, 
and mean to indulge in it." Very well. That is 
your matter — and God's. Say then frankly, not ** I 
take it for my health, or for my brain " — if your 
brain had not a felt deficiency, you never would' 
want it; but say, '' I take it for the fi-ne exhilaration, 
for the ecstatic thrill of nerve, for the airy fancies 
that troop the brain, for the winged lightness that 
could let me walk on flowers, for the sense of 
kingliness that takes the place of carking care." 
Then say, "• For this, I'm wiUing to take what fol- 
lows: the real pain that succeeds champagne, 



348 Scientific Certainties about Alcohol, 

headache, nausea, induration of brain, trembling 
of nerve, weakening of muscle, vitiation of tissues, 
gloomy thoughts iSr my airy fancies, unutterable 
loathing of self for my fancied kingliness of a mo- 
ment, black horrors, delirium, and — hell, if I go 
too far." 

But there are some of you who are not influ- 
enced by these certainties. You would not 
believe the multiplication-table if it were now 
presented as a new thing, and it went against 
you interests and tastes. You insist on putting 
your experience against the fact of the earth's 
revolution. What can be done for you ? Not 
much. Nevertheless something. Weigh proba- 
bilities fairly. Never incline the beam with the 
weight of your own inclination. And if you 
really conclude that alcoholic drinks are best for 
you, do not conclude that they are best for every- 
body else. While you insist on the usurped rights 
of rum, take care that you are not trampling on 
the rights of men. Rum has long asserted that 
one insults a man to refuse his invitation to drink. 
Let us remember that the one invited has a rig-ht 
to decline. An officer of the crown of England 
once sent me a glass of wine, at a public dinner. 
I acknowledged the gift, and never touched it. 
While explaining my course to him afterward, I 
could see that I had risen one hundred per cent, in 
his estimation. If I had not seen it, he would have 
sunk two hundred per cent, in mine. 

A member of this church called upon some 
government officials with the expectation of 



Scientific Certainties about Alcohol. 349 

making large contracts for goods. They immedi- 
ately invited him to drink. He declined. They 
insisted with oaths that he must drink. Then he 
refused. Thereupon one of the half-drunken fools 
tried to force him, declaring that he would buy 
no goods of him if he did not drink. Then said 
the other, " You buy no goods of me," and walked 
away. The next morning, the fiery madness hav- 
ing been slept off, the officers made most unex- 
pectedly large contracts, because they had found, 
to their surprise, a man true as steel, a man that 
could be trusted. 

It is claimed to be a breach of politeness not to 
partake of the punch on the side-board of your 
liost. It is a conteiript of his providence, an in- 
sinuation against his good taste. Not so. A host 
always provides a scraper outside the door. But 
it is no breach of politeness, when I come clean- 
footed from the carriage, that I do not stop and 
rasp for five m.inutes on that scraper. I do not 
need it, nor his punch-bowl either. Guests have 
rights as well as hosts, and, if hosts will 
r.'rink, let them never tempt the guest whom 
hC'Spitalrty binds them to protect. 

We have had a subtle influence of death in our 
midvSt the past winter. It has spread its dark 
wing over our city, and men feared as they passed 
under the cloud. This awful influence has pene- 
trated all sorts of homes. Satin damask curtains 
can no more keep it out than the broken windows 
of pcvert}^ It climbs up high marble steps, as well 
&s pours down the passages of underground dens. 



350 Scientific Certainties ibout AU'o)u''l, 

There is another subtle influence oi dea..h .n 
our midst all the time. It puts more m the grave 
every year, in our city, than the plague referred 
to. it penetrates the palace as well as the hovel. 
It takes daughters and wives as well as husbands 
and sons. It leaves a darker shade of sorrow, and 
a worse inheritance for children. It is death, but 
that is a small part of its horror. It is sad to 
mourn a dead friend, but tenfold worse to mourn 
a living- friend. And yet it spreads and spreads. 
New graves are opened for its victims every day. 
New homes are invaded with its foul breath and 
blasted every day. And — O amazement beyond 
words ! — we have eight thousand shops in this 
city devoted to this deadly plague's perpetuatio« 
and spread. 



My Name is Legion. 



" He said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And b« 
asked him, Wha^ is thy name ? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion 
for we are many." — St. Mark v. 8, 9. 

IT is announced to us, by divine authority, that 
" for this purpose the Son of God was mani- 
fested that he might destroy the works of the 
devil.'* For the accomplishment of this result, 
not only was his own personal ministry designed, 
but also the ministry of his Gospel, and the main- 
tenance of his church and people through all the 
ages of their history upon the earth. 

The Saviour's purpose is to break up the whole 
dominion of Satan over the souls of men, and to 
annihilate his power, however exercised, and by 
whatever instruments maintained. He illustrated 
this purpose, and his power to accomplish it, in 
many instances of his personal ministry. The in- 
cident here before us is but a single instance of 
this beneficent design and action. This illustrates 
the subject which I have in hand, and gives an en- 
couraging view of the Saviour's power and the 
Christian's duty. 

The case presented to us here was an unusual 
demonstration of fierceness and power in the evil 
spirit, and of melancholy suffering in the poor 



352 My Name ts Legion. 

victim of his rage. It is said of the latter that 
*' he had oeen often bound with fetters and chains, 
and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, 
and the fetters broken in pieces. Neither could 
any man tame him. And always, night and day, 
he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying 
out, and cutting himself with stones." A legion 
of devils had taken possession of him ; and they 
exercised their malice and their strength for his 
destruction. 

Jesus met this wretched victim of Satan, and 
his gracious salutation of authority sounded in- 
stantly for his relief — " Come out of the man, thou 
unclean spirit." '' And he that was possessed with 
the devil, and had the legion, was found sitting, 
and clothed, and in his right mind." 

This was the stand of Jesus. This was his rela- 
tion to the works of the devil, and to the miseries 
of men suffering under his power. May we not 
see in it, the duty of his servants and disciples, and 
the relations in which they should be arrayed, in 
reference to similar spirits of evil which are op- 
pressing and enslaving the souls of men ? May 
we not here learn the responsibility and obligation 
of the Christian Church, in regard to those who 
are destroying the earth ? 

Surely they are not to participate in the works 
of the devil. They are not to make their gains 
by trafficking on his side in human suffering and 
blood. They are not to cover up, conceal, excuse, 
apologize for, the cruelty of his dominion over 
men corrupted and enslaved by his power. Still 



My Name is Legi&n. 353 

less can they be permitted to offer themselves and 
their children as victims upon his altar. 

They are bound by every relation in which 
they stand to the Lord whom they profess to 
serve, to set themselves against every evil work, 
both in abstinence from its temptations, and in 
hostility to all its attempts. They are willingly 
arrayed on the side of the Captain of their salva- 
tion, as pledged to the utmost extent of their influ- 
ence, to break down and destro}^ all the instru- 
ments and means by which this enemy to man 
prevails for the destruction of mankind. 

To trace out this destructive dominion of Satan 
in all its branches, in a discourse like this, would 
be impossible. There is, however, one grand 
agency of his for evil and ruin to man which may 
well be called Legion. All the miseries and 
madness of human life are seen flowing from it 
and produced by it. There is no shape of suffer- 
ing or sorrow for man which it does not habitu- 
ally create. This mighty power of destruction is 
seen ruling in the land in which we dwell, and 
dragging down to a dark and hopeless grave, more 
victims perishing in their guilt, than all other 
agencies of evil combined. 

This is the EVIL SPIRIT OF INTEMPERANCE — the 
Moloch of our age and nation. 

The character and influence of this spirit oi 
evil I would attempt to display in some of the 
results of Ids zvork, some of the abodes of /lis /abo?% 
and some of the victims on zvJioni he preys. The 
view is so extensive that it will be impossible to 



254 ^y Name is Legion. 

do more than to recount some of the conceded 
facts of its immense exterior. The fearful cata- 
f logue of personal details of individual and domes- 
tic sorrows it would be beyond our power to 
enumerate. 

[. Consider some of the results of this evil 
work. 

Behold the establishments in our land for the 
shelter of absolute pauperism, containing more 
than 300,000 persons supported at the public ex- 
pense as an inevitable burden. Remember that 
at least one-half of this vast number of paupers 
have been driven there as the direct victims of 
intemperance. Then realize that you cannot com- 
pute the wandering poverty in this nation, at less 
than a similar amount, or varying from a similar 
division ; and you have as the result, in this land 
of intelligence and self-government, 300,000 per- 
sons reduced to absolute beggary, and in most 
cases to hopeless beggary, and laid as an immov- 
able charge, and burden, and tax, upon the indus- 
trious and temperate remainder of this people by 
this legion of destruction. 

Go look at more than 20,000 lunatics as they 
' appear before you, either sheltered by private 
kindness, or confined by self-defending cruelty, or 
wandering in sorrow, and learn that more than 
one-half of these have lost the reason with which 
they were endowed by a gracious Creator, under 
fhe tyranny of this demoniac oppression. 

Go examine more than 30,000 criminals confined 



My Name is Legion. 355 

in your public prisons, under various sentences of 
g-uilt and violence against their feilow-men, and 
hear that more than 25,000 of these prisoners of 
public justice have been directly brought there 
by this cruel demon of intemperance. 

Go hear 95 out of every 100 wretched beings 
who are convicted and sentenced under charges 
of capital crime, acknowledge for themselves, in 
the despair of their condition, that they have been 
stained with blood because they had first been 
stupefied with rum. 

Go calculate, if you can, the amount of taxes 
and pecuniary burdens which have been brought 
upon the community who are peaceably and so- 
berly laboring for their own and for the public 
welfare, by all this array of violence, of poverty 
and crime. Not less than fifty millions of dollars 
are annually expended in the direct payment for 
the poison which has produced this work of ruin. 
More than thrice that sum is annually paid to 
guard the community from the effects produced 
by this direct expenditure for the gratification of 
crime ; to remedy the evils which it has produced, 
and to shelter the wretched beings who have been 
ruined by it. 

Remember that all this immense sum has been 
paid, and all these enormous burdens have been 
borne, by the toil, the labor, and the self-denial 
of the sober and industrious remainder of our 
population. 

In this limited calculation, which every serious 
investigating mind will acknowledge comes far 



35^ My Name is Legion, 

within the truth, every laboring, temperate father 
of a faniily is compelled, by direct and indirect 
taxation upon his toil and self-denial, to support 
at least one other family rendered vagrant, idle, 
impotent, and hopeless, by this fearful traffic in 
RUM. 

Thus does this demon of intemperance grind 
down honesty to pay for crime ; make labor in the 
upright become the slave of guilty idleness in the 
corrupt; and compel the prudent and faithful 
servant of God and friend of man, to bear a tax 
for the support of the victims of his rage and 
power ; a tax which eats into the heart and con- 
sumes the very vitals of honorable and industrious 
effort, for those whom God hath committed to 
its rightful charge. 

Yet again, go look at the results of this power 
of destruction upon the immediate victims of this 
cruelty. There are more than frve hundred thou- 
sand — it may be more than one million — of drunk- 
ards in these United States. Of these at least 
thirty thousand in every year go down to the 
darkness, gloom, and eternal despair of a drunk- 
ard's grave. An average of more than three in 
every hour pass from time into eternity, with all 
this load of hopeless guilt, to meet a God whom 
they have despised and a judgment which tiiey 
have defied. Within the single hour of one meet- 
ing for the public worship ot God. the open grave 
has received three imn:ortai victims of this demon 
of intemperance. Since tliis century began, more 
than two millions of drunkards in this land of 



Mf Name is Legion. 3 $7 

boasted liberty and refinement have been driven 
hy this enemy of man down this dark abyss. 

All of these were' once the objects of human ten- 
derness and love. They were bedewed by a moth- 
er's tears of joy, and bathed with a mother's kisses 
of affection. They were a father's hope, and the 
anticipated props of a father's age and weakness. 
Life to them opened as sweetly, promised as fairly, 
and was looked upon as eagerly as for any others 
of their race. Their youthful blood was as fresh, 
their infant blush as innocent, and their appetites 
as docile, as others around them. 

They have been driven away before this demon 
of intemperance, since these eyes of ours have 
seen the light, from the very soil which we inhabit 
— if there be truth in God — to a hopeless and dark 
eternity. Could you see this vast multitude of 
wretched beings, separated from the residue of 
the community, congregated together in some 
great common field of blood and sorrow, what a 
spectacle of horror would they present! But 
could you see them individualized and separate, 
dispersed among their friends and kindred, each 
united in his vileness by ties tender and indisso- 
luble to other beingfs — often to beinsfs of the 
purest virtue, of the liveliest sensibilit}-, and of 
the loftiest hopes — what gauge could measure the 
extent, what arithmetic couid sum up the amount, 
of the misery comprehended within your field of 
vision ? 

Could you number the concealed tears which 
nave flowed from so many sleepless eyes, as God, 



358 My Name is Legion. 

in his watchfulness, numbers them ; could yois 
hear those stifled sighs which escape from suck 
sorrow-wounded hearts, as (jod hears them , 
could you bring into your view the despairing 
anguish of their own eternit}^ as the wages of their 
sin are measured out to them, 3-ou might then, 
but not till then, estimate something of this one 
portion, of the fearful amount of evil which this 
demon of intemperance has accomplished for man- 
kind. 

But you must return from the grave where you 
have left these victims of a hopeless sorrow, and 
sit down with broken-hearted widows, whose life 
of sadness, almost worn out by the violence, and 
exhausted by the wa^te of the living drunkards, 
has been rendered finally incurably wretched, by 
the despair which has settled upon their ignomi- 
nious graves. You must look upon the orphans 
whose poor hearts have been so early taught to 
fear the cruelty of those whom they were made to 
love, and who must now struggle with a load of 
want and anguish which has been bound upon 
them by the very hands formed for their support. 
You must look upon parental hopes all blighted, 
upon family honor stained and gone, in the fur- 
rowed aspect of fathers whose hearts have been 
broken in their age by the very ones who were 
given to them to hold up their declining steps and 
to cheer their feeble, sinking years; and of mo- 
theni whose tenderness, never dying, cannot re» 
prej; ; the secret cry, " What, my son ! What, 
the son of my womb ! What, the son of my 



My Name is Legion, 359 

vows 1 Would to God I had died for thee, my 
son, my son !" 

You must multiply these Bochir^.s, these val- 
leys of weeping, sometimes by this whole number 
of buried drunkards. You must go further: 
you must go look at the youthful female victims 
of unholy lust — daughters who were once as in- 
nocent and as free from guile as the purest of their 
sex, and who have been sacrificed in that hor- 
rible immolation which buries them in oblivion, 
and darkness, and unchanging sorrow, ere 3^et the 
youthful period has been exchanged for the full 
years of maturity. 

You must multiply these wretched victims, as 
we have thus considered them, to an extent of 
which I dare not speak. My soul sickens at the 
thought. My weary heart turns off with shudder- 
ing from the view. You must go forward and 
stand with all these at the judgment-seat of the 
living God, where the whole tale of secret 
wickedness shall be told, and the whole recom- 
pense of its varied iniquity shall be brought out 
to public gaze and to open light. 

You must look into the horrors of the second 
death, where the enemy and his victims are 
bound together in everlasting despair, and God 
is known in his consuming holiness as taking ven- 
geance on the ungodly, and in destroying those 
who have destroyed the earth. All these fearful 
results must be considered before you can fully 
estimate the results which have been accomplish- 
ed by this demon of intemperance, whose name 



360 My Name is Legion. 

is Legion, even within the limited space of earth 
included in your own country, and the short 
period of your single generation. 

You must then consider the world in its extent 
and its history, and the conclusion will be forced 
upon you, as with the thunder of overwhelming 
truth, that all other agencies and instruments 
of Satan combined, war, pestilence, famine, 
and DISEASE, have not more effectively cut off 
the life of man, and crowded the dark chambers of 
eternal woe, than this single demon of intem- 
perance, the spirit which may well adopt this com- 
prehensive title, '' My name is Legion." 

IL We will proceed to consider some of the 
abodes of his labor, the residences which this evil 
spirit has chosen upon the earth, in which to 
establish the operations of his power, and the 
machinery by which he labors to destroy man- 
kind. In this view, you may begin at the bottom 
of the scale, but you cannot stop there. If you 
ask him, *' Legion, where dwellest thou?" he will 
answer you, "Come and see." 

He wuU lead you to those low and filthy haunts, 
in your vilest quarters, where beggary and vice 
are entwined together ; where the most depraved 
and brutish of their species mete out the destruct- 
ive drug to haggard want and tattered wickedness, 
for the poor price which has been snatched by theft, 
or for the last remnant of the recompense of stin- 
ted labor, plucked from the mouths of children 
famishing for bread and starving in the cold ; 



My Name is Legion. 361 

while this infernal demon sits in the bosom of the 
guilty seller, and scornfully laug-hs over a traffic 
in which both the appetite of the buyer and the 
gain of the seller are equally dedicated to him 
and directed by his will— and says, " See where 1 
dwell!" 

He will take you to his higher courts, in your 
gilded bar-rooms, and your lofty and fashionable 
hotels, where men are willing to pay extrava- 
gantly for the pedigree of his craft, and give 
of their substance in proportion to an imaginary 
excellence and rareness of his provision ; where 
he has so calculated his dealings with his agents 
and his victims, that he makes the often enormous 
rent of his glittering habitation arise from the 
clear profit of the crime which he has thus taught. 

An infidel philosopher once said : " Vice, de- 
prived of its grossness, loses half of its guilt." 
So this spirit has taught in these higher halls of 
his display. Here he contrives to combine every 
possible element which may make this trade of 
soul-killing which he teaches, in the highest de- 
gree attractive and effectual. There you see the 
demon again at home, amidst the glitter of reflect- 
ing plate and the glare of many-colored glass ; 
and rearing hundreds of souls deluded and 
destroyed, for his own abode ; compelling many 
strong men to bow down beneath his power and 
to wear his livery and his yoke for ever. 

Between the objects seen in these two visits 
with this spirit of evil, in the mere elements 
of adornment, the apparent difference is great. 



36z Mj Name is Legion. 

Is there any real difference in the guill, the 

crime, the ruin, which mark them and attend 
upon them? Do all these vast contrasts in the 
furniture and vessels which are severally employ- 
ed, establish an}- unlikeness in the work to which 
they are devoted ? Perhaps I But not in the 
line proposed. If there be any grade in the de- 
gree of guilt, beyond all question, its highest is 
there where the larger quantity of the poison is 
dispensed, and where the nobler selections of the 
human family, doomed and drugged, are betrayed 
and destroyed. 

There would be but little difference of judg- 
ment among good men upon this point. The 
immediate personal retailing of this poison for 
man's destruction, is acknowledged to be guilt. 
One individual man reaches it to another, and is 
instantly connected with the effect which it pro- 
duces. There is no intermediate agent to divide 
the responsibility. There is no concealment of 
the deed effected. He has a single victim before 
him, and he plunges his pointed weapon into the 
open breast of the victim whom he destroys. And 
whether it be a jewelled sword, a silver-mounted 
stiletto, or a rusty butcher's knife, there is no 
moral difference to be discovered there. 

The trade is altogether everywhere a trade of 
blood. Its effects are written in blood. Its gains 
corrode in blood. And there is a voice in this 
blood which reaches to the skies. And there is 
tJiere an Ear that listens to every wailing which 
th.^t voic^ lifts up And there is a day coming 



My Name is Legion. 363 

when all these accusations and groans shall be 
brought out as they are recorded ; and God shall 
judge, not by gains alleged, nor by excuses made, 
nor by palliations imagined, but in infinite holi- 
ness and with unerring justice, the guilt of those 
who have filled the earth with sorrow, with crime, 
and woe. 

But will Legion stop with these contrasted 
homes when making the tour of his dwellings? 
Are these retailing-shops his only abodes among 
men? Nay, he dwells far more respectably and 
gainfully than there. If there were not other 
agents, the trade of these servants would soon 
conclude. If there were elsewhere no living 
flowing fountains, these shallow ponds would 
soon dry up. And there can be no difference 
in the moral responsibility and obligation of 
stages beyond these, except the absolute and 
undeniable principle, that as you increase the 
quantity, and of consequence the projected re- 
sults of the evil distributed, you advance the 
responsibility and the guilt of its distribution. 

Will you tell me that the man who shoots a 
single man with a pistol, that he may strip him for 
gain, is a murderer; but that the man w^ho dis- 
charges a cannon loaded with grape-shot into the 
midst of a multitude assembled, that he may reap 
the spoils of many by a single act, is not so? 

WiU 3^ou tell me that the man is justly punish- 
ed who is found clothed with the garments and 
the watch of the lonely traveller whom he has en- 
ticed to a secret death ; but that another, whose 



3)64 My Name is Legion, 

gains from the multitude of deaths inflicted by 
him have been so great that he is obliged to build 
new houses to contain the spoils which he has 
gathered from his slain thousands, is innocent? 

Legion laughs at the folly of your reasoning. 
He sees that you could in no way more com- 
pletely edify and sustain the kingdom of ruin foi 
man, which he is laboring to exalt. No ; he will 
take you where the man, elevated in human com- 
putation, has treasured this flood of death in 
unlimited quantities, has ripened it for years, and 
parts with nothing but the largest measures at 
the highest prices ; where the smothered con- 
science, or the sensibility to remark, has lifted the 
poison out of sight to the very attic of his im- 
mense warehouse, or buried it deep in cellared 
vaults beneath ; and the man himself, ostrichlike, 
has hidden his own eyes beneath the veil, and 
imagines himself unseen and safe ; and will say, 
** Here have I a home, guarded and unassailable 
by feeble man." 

He will take you where the merchant welcomes 
with joy the safe arrival of his ship-loads of these 
instruments of death ; or where the manufacturer 
has invested his millions of wealth, and has famished 
the bread of thousands in the products of his still. 
And though he enables the agents of his employ 
to ride in charioted splendor, or to dwell in pal- 
aces which Moorish pride might envy, he will 
claim the work as all his own. The demon has 
domesticated himself completely in these exten- 
sive haunts of gain. Like the spirit of the stor.ii, 



My Name is Legion, 36^ 

he nestles among these original fountains of th^ 
flow of death, and declares, with a pride which 
cannot be rebuked, that his home is there. 

Far rather would he that you should nail the 
doors, and oust the inhabitants of the flaunting 
taverns along your streets, than shut up one of 
these great repositories of his instruments of war- 
fare upon the souls of men. The more respect- 
able he can make the trade, the more he can screen 
his agents from reproach and arrest, the more 
really and effectually he accomplishes his ends, of 
destruction to many, and of apparent triumph 
over the goodness and power of God. 

But does this spirit of intemperance even here 
limit his abodes with men ? Legion will lead you 
further than this. He has respected, guarded, 
and attractive nurseries for his victims, as well as 
highly honored agents in his employ. He will go 
v/ith you to the luxurious tables ; to the social en- 
tertainments of your highest ranks of society ; to 
the peaceful private abode of many a family cir- 
cle, dwelling in the wealth and cultivation of 
earth ; where the sweetened poisons of every de- 
scription, wines of every age and name, are richly 
gathered and freely and habitually used ; where 
the father puts the bottle to the mouth of the son, 
and the mother sees, without aversion or reproof, 
her blooming daughter enticed to taste the poi- 
soned cup; where family habits and the inherit- 
ance of age and station have dignified and conse- 
crated the moderate use, as it is called, of these 
instruments of death. 



366 My Name is Legion. 

Here this destructive spirit loves to dwell. 
These are like the distant, quiet, sylvan shades of 
the land he rules — a peaceful, flowery, attractive 
abode, where he gathers the treasures which he 
robs without suspicion ; where he plucks the lambs 
for his sacrifices, far distant from the altar on 
which he means finally to consume them. Could 
he be driven from these deceitful haunts, his work 
would stop and his power would end. These 
armies of moderate drinkers are bis reserved 
corps, to be thrust forward in their turn, as the 
reeling platoons in the distant van of his unfailing 
hosts fall and perish in death. 

Who can see the wine-cup circulated, and 
youth enticed to contract a taste perfectly un- 
natural to the human constitution, but fixed and 
certain in its process when it has taken possession 
of its victim — a taste which presses on to his ruin 
with a certainty which a divine power alone can 
arrest — who can see this without a secret shud- 
dering at the sight, from the perfect conscious- 
ness of feeling and conviction of certainty that 
Legion is establishing his dwelling and his ruling 
there ? 

It is pitiable to hear him deride the victims of 
his deception for their weakness, and laugh in 
scornful triumph^ over the victory which he has 
obtained, when they have been persuaded, them- 
selves to defend the very tyranny by which he is 
holding them in an oppressive subjection, and 
leading them onward to a final despair. Nor can 
all the anacreontic songs of human giddiness and 



My Name is Legion. 367 

degradation, nor all the perverted influence of 
past generations, too inconsiderate upon this scl- 
emn subject, nor all the flimsy attempts to drag 
the reason of man, and even the Word of the living 
Ood to their defence to sanctify these destructive 
temptations, blind us to their results. 

Whereunto will these things grow? These are 
Legion's choice abodes. You will never drive 
him from the dark holes and hovels which we 
have just considered until you force him to leave 
these earlier honored walks. Banish the wine- 
bottles from 3^our tables, as the chosen refreshment 
for your friends, and resolve to meet your cliil- 
dren and your fellow-men in judgment, without the 
opportunit}^ for a single perishing drunkard to 
say, that your example and your invitations first 
started him on the road to eternal death. 

III. From these two wide and comprehensive 
views we will proceed to recount some of the 
VICTIMS of the demon's power. And here you 
must take a far earlier view of this course of cer- 
tain ruin than the agents or patrons of the evil will 
readily concede. 

You cannot, must not, confine yourselves to a 
view of the carcasses of these slain, when in the 
final beggary of hopeless drunkenness they are 
cast out from men, loathsome, despised, and per- 
ishing. A field of battle, when the fight has 
passed, and blood, and brains, and mutilated limbs 
are scattered in confusion round, is an awful, 
shocking sight. None can wa k there and see 



368 My Name is Legion. 

the hundreds of healthful, youth/ul forms, palhd 
in d'ath, torn by dogs, the food of vultures, with- 
out a fainting of his heart within him, in remem- 
brariue of the men who lie before him. But how 
man f more hearts bleed than those which have 
beat their last pulse on this field of woe ! What 
anguish is elsewhere felt, far distant from this 
fearf.tl scene ! What lifelong anguish will be felt 
by nfjultitudes who will never actually behold it — 
by hearts which were bound to these sons, and 
husbands, and fathers, by the sweetest ties of 
earth ly life ! 

But if war has slain its thousands, intemperance 
has s^in its tens of thousands. And where is the 
fathe/ who would not prefer to see his son shot 
dowi/ before his face, than to behold him poisoned 
to a ^.ftgrading death by these foul harpies whom 
Legion has employed ? 

And who are the men whose fate has thus been 
seale,i in hopeless ruin? 

Thiy are young. They were seized and bound 
while young. Hardly one in hundreds has passed 
the miturity of his earthly days. Did they begin 
as purposed, willing drunkards? Nothing was 
further from their thoughts or their desires. They 
have waded out most gradually, almost imper- 
ceptibly, into the deep. They then looked down 
upon \he inebriate sot with sorrow and contempt, 
as others now look down upon them. They 
started with the drop which their fathers gave 
them, or with the offered glass of friendship, at 
noon or night, when they lacked the courage to 



My Name is Legion, 369 

refuse. The demon seized them when they were 
sheltered, as they thought, far from his abodes, 
and led them on, his purpose fixed, though yet 
unknown to them, for their final ruin. 

Where did this work of ruin begin ? Do not tell 
me at the tavern or in haunts like that. What 
gave to pure and innocent youth that taste for 
taverns? Where did they get the appetite which 
sought its objects and its pleasures there ? You 
will be compelled to look back far beyond this 
final limit, and to feel and to acknowledge the re- 
sponsibility often coming far nearer home. The 
moderate drinker is but an indentured apprentice 
to the drunkard. A gracious divine Providence 
may cripple his ability in his youth, and he may 
not thoroughly learn his trade. But the habitual 
glass, however apparently refined, signs his in- 
denture. And no one who starts in the imitation 
of the craft, or who leads another, to take a single 
step in its clearly marked line, has power to de- 
fine the limits of the course. 

These victims of ruin are often, I might per- 
haps justly say are habitually, selected from the 
most promising, generous, social, and affectionate 
of our young men. Genius, education, family, 
profession, friends, furnish no abiding obstacle or 
sure defence. When the degrading appetite has 
been formed and whetted, it bursts through all 
these bonds. The noblest and most cherished 
sons of our best connections are here cast out 
to perish with the vilest and the basest of man- 
kind. 



5/0 My Name is Legion. 

No one who has mingled long and intelligently 
with men, especially with young men preparing 
tor active life, can be ignorant of this fact. Our 
colleges are living records of the frequency of 
this destruction. Our congregated business es- 
tablishments in large cities present an enormous 
catalogue of victims. 

The venerable Dr. Nott said : '* A friend of 
mine once gave me the number and the names 
of a social club of temperate drinkers, which 
existed in the city of my residence, and of which, 
when young, he was himself a member. And I 
have since remarked how, bereft of fortune, of repu- 
tation, of health, and sometimes even of reason, 
they have descended, one after another, prema- 
turely to the grave, until at length, though not 
an old man, that friend alone remains, of all their 
number, to tell how he himself was rescued from 
a fate so terrible, by the timely and prophetic 
counsel of a pious mother. And I have remarked 
also, how those pupils of my own, who, in despite 
of warning, admonition, and entreaty, have per- 
sisted in the use of intoxicating liquors while at 
college, have, on entering the world, sunk into 
obscurity, and finally disappeared, from among 
their rival actors, once their companions, rising 
into life. And, when searching out the cause, I 
have, full of anxiety, enquired after one, and 
another, and another, the same answer has been 
returned — *' He has become a sot" ; or, '' Gone a 
sot into the grave.'' 

Such testimony as this could be corroborated 



My Name is Legion. 371 

by a thousand similar recitals. Such death* 
beds, where genius has been sacrificed profes- 
sional character thrown away, and early virtue 
trodden down, by this demon of evil, have been 
heard in groans of anguish, and in curses of the 
most fearful character, upon the early tempters to 
the ruin, and upon the early indulgence in the 
temptation, as the source of all the misery pro- 
duced. Such scenes as these might be summoned 
in vast numbers to testify that this agent of 
destruction spares no station, and has bound his 
victims with cords which are rarely broken, when 
the habit of drinking has once been formed, or 
the confirmed desire for the poison has been 
acquired. 

God grant that we may never live to see our 
sons and daughters, so precious in our sight, cast 
out to perish under the destroying power of this 
Legion demon ! But if we would avoid this ter- 
rible sorrow, let us avoid all connection with the 
habit or the trade. Let us remember that he 
plucks the lambs from the flock at home, and 
selects the victims for his holocausts when they 
and theirs least expect his approach. I can but 
say earnestly to those who hear me : *' If you will 
save the souls of your children from the destruc- 
tion, or yourselves from all participation in the 
ruin, banish the 'accursed thing' from your 
habitations; lock up the tempting bottles from 
their sight ; and neither have, nor use, nor offer 
upon your tables, this unnecessary inducement 
to vice, this direct provision for impoverishment 



372 My Name is Legion. 

of the health, poison to the bodies, and destruc- 
tion of the souls, of yourselves, and your children, 
and your friends." 

We have thus taken a survey of some of the 
results, some of the abodes, and some of the victi^ns 
of this Legion spirit of evil. Allow me now to 
ask, what is the duty of the servants of Jesus 
Christ, our Lord, in reference to this awful sys- 
tem of destruction for man ? When this gracious 
Saviour met the legion that had taken possession 
of the poor victim of his tormenting power, his 
instant attitude was opposition ; his immediate 
language was rebuke; his command, clothed 
with resistless power, was, '* Come out of the man, 
thou unclean spirit." 

Jesus did not participate with him, unite with 
him, apologize for him, compromise with him. 
He would " have no fellowship with the unfruitful 
works of darkness." What, then, should be the 
stand of his ministers and servants now? We can 
give no other answer, with a clear conscience, than 
just the stand which the Lord himself assumed ; 
have no connection with the demon of intemper 
ance in any shape, but to oppose, to resist, to re- 
buke him. 

Would that gracious Lord, were he now upon 
the earth with us, unite in making or drinking that 
fiery liquor which his own Word had declared to 
be " a mocker," against which he had solemnly 
warned the children of men when it displayed 
** Its color in the cup" ; to the effect and opera- 
tion of which h^ had assigned " vomiting," '* fil- 



My Name is Legion. 375 

thiness," " redness of eyes," ** woes," "■ babblings," 
and ** wounds without cause " ^ 

How awful is such a thought ! Would he par- 
take with men of this world in draughts like these? 
Could he walk among the perishing thousands of 
our people who hav^e been degraded and slain by 
strong drink, and give the sanction of his example 
to the pleasurable use of this instrument of death ? 
Would he furnish the shelter of his name and his 
authority to this fearful trafficking in human blood 
and the souls of men? Let us not be deceived. 
The followers of Jesus must take another stand 
than this. 

Their own character and influence on eartb de- 
mand an entire separation from the traffic in in- 
toxicating liquors, and a total abstinence from 
their use. The Christian minister or the Chris- 
tian professor in uniting with either cuts off im- 
mediately, and justly, his influence for good among 
men, and takes upon himself a responsibility which 
he will find it hard indeed to bear. 

There is so much knowledge upon this subject, 
and so much suffering has been endured in con- 
nection with "it, that no man can now plead the ex- 
cuses, or the ignorance of former days. The effects 
of the drinking of intoxicating liquors are known 
to be only evil, and immediately evil. No man is 
ignorant of this. The man who aids the circula- 
tion of these poisons well knows that the streams 
which he sends forth can only operate in their 
measure and degree to destroy mankind. A ven- 
erable Chancellv^r of the State of New Yort 



374 ^y Name is Legion. 

said years ago ; *' The time will come when 
men will as soon be found engaged in poisoning 
their neighbors' wells as in making or vending 
intoxicating liquors to be used as a beverage in 
health." 

I would appeal to all who read what 1 have 
written: Separate yourselves from this whole 
system of sin and human misery. Banish the 
temptation from your families. Wash your hands 
from all the gains of the traffic. Give your un- 
changing countenance and aid to the efforts which 
are made to arrest the power of this ruin, and to 
rescue the victims of its dominion. Then the re- 
membrance of the stand which you have taken will 
awaken no sorrows, no misgivings, in the retro- 
spections of your coming hours. The thought 
that you leave behind you an example and a wit- 
ness, a family trained to temperance, and en- 
couraged and pledged by the whole weight of 
your own influence in the line of a total absti- 
nence from strong drink, will plant no thorn in 
the pillow of sickness and add no pang to the 
trials of your departure. 

There is no stopping-place in this path of in- 
temperance but this — Total Abstinence. The 
movement in the indulgence once commenced is 
ever onward and downward. The thirst created 
is quenchless. The appetite produced is insatia- 
ble. You may not be permitted to complete the 
whole process ; but never forget that it is an un- 
ceasing, accelerating progress. Your own safety 
is in withholding yourself entirely from its power 



My Name is Legion. 375 

Vour usefulness is in setting yourself untlinch- 
ingly against it. 

If this Legion demon must rage and will rage, 
let him never be permitted to charge you with 
the degrading, responsible fact of your willing 
countenance, or your cowardly silence or indiSbr 



THE 

Christian Serving his Generation. 



"David, after he had served his own generation by .he will of God, fell 
oa sleep." — Acts xii.. 36. 

THE great stream of human history, as it 
flows down through the ages, is fed by the 
tributaries of individual Hves, which differ in char- 
acter in each particular case. Some rise almost at 
the very margin of the river into which they run, 
and, after a short course, lose themselves in its 
waters. Others flow on with even and gentle cur- 
rent, through banks of rich fertility and luxuriant 
beauty, and at length emerge into the common 
stream, in a vale of peace and loveliness, like the 
sw^eet '* Avoca " of which the poet sings; while 
others still, rising far up on the mountain heights, 
come tearing down through the valleys, breaking 
themselves continually into foam as they leap 
from rock to rock, and at last, all panting and out 
of breath, as if in haste to run their course, rush 
into the general current. And some there are 
which in their one career pass through many of 
these different phases. Away up in some moun- 
tain moorland they begin their course in lonely 
grandeur ; then, coming down into the plain be- 
neath, they are broken by many a fall, seething 
like a caldron as they roll over rough and rocky 
beds, and between rugged and precipitous banks ; 



378 The Christian Servifig his Generation. 

thence they come out into some broad and level 
table-land, where they rest themselves awhile in 
calm and quiet flow; but out of this again they 
rush, and anew they tumble, and toss, and are 
broken, until at length, just before they join the 
great primeval river, they resume their placid cur- 
rent, and at the meeting of the waters there is no 
sound of strife, but, instead, a quiet hush of melo- 
dy which sings of peace. 

Of this last kind was the life-course of that 
illustrious man of whom mention is made in 
my text — the inspired poet-king of Israel, Da- 
vid. Its opening hours were spent in the pleas- 
ant solitude of shepherd life ; and who among 
us has not often had before his eye a vision of 
that fair-haired boy, of ruddy countenance, wak- 
ing with his reed the echoes on the slopes of 
Bethlehem, or singing as he passed on before his 
flock and led them to the quiet water's edge, 
*' The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want *' ? 
Then the scene is changed, and we find him at the 
court, seeking to " minister to the mind diseased '* 
of Saul, and calming, for the time, his troubled 
soul with the soft strains of skilful music. Again 
the curtain rises, and this time we behold him in 
the midst of Elah's valle}^ with a bannered host on 
either side, and before him the giant Philistine, 
taunting him with his youth, and boasting that he 
would give his flesh to the fowls of the air; there 
he stands, the youthful hero, clad in the unseen 
panoply of God, and, with a pebble from his shep- 
herd's sling, he fells his haughty adversary to the 



The Christian Serving his Generation. 2>79 

dust. Next time the scene is in the cave of dark 
Adullam, whither he has fled through fear of 
Saul; fierce, cruel, and unprincipled men sur- 
round him, and they have made him their captain ; 
yet, in the midst of all their revelry and riot, be- 
hold him sitting by the dim light of their watch- 
fire, inditing one of those divine odes which the 
church even yet delights to sing. And now a new 
act of this great life-drama begins, and the scene 
opens in a royal palace ; there are corridors and 
passages glancing with cedar wood, and there, in 
the foreground, are companies of warriors, telling 
each of the martial prowess of their lord — when 
lo ! the door of an inner chamber opens, and we 
behold the king himself, with the book of the law 
unrolled before him, and, as he rises reverently to 
lay it past, we hear him say in the rapt fervor of 
devotion : *' Oh, how love I thy law ! it is my study 
all the day." But a darker change comes over the 
palace : a man of God is seen before the king ; he 
tells a simple story, drawn from that shepherd 
life in which the royal heart is yet so deeply in- 
terested — a story which unfolds a wrong of the 
deepest and most wanton kind ; and when, with 
righteous indignation moved, the king pronounces 
a most terrible sentence, the stern prophet an- j 
swers:''Thou art the man." In a moment the 
fountains of that great heart are broken up — the 
monarch falls upon his knees, and with a cry of 
penitence, which has come sobbing down through 
the centuries to us, he says, "' Have mercy upon 
me, O God ; have mercy upon me." But now 



380 The Christian Serving his Generation, 

again the scene is chang-ed. He has fled before 
an unnatural and rebellious son, and stands at Ma- 
hanaim's gate ; his faithful friends insist on fight- 
ing in his cause, but they will not have him 
exposed to the dangers of the field ; and as rank 
after rank passes on before him to the deadly strife, 
he says, '' Deal gently, for my sake, with the young 
man "; but ere that day departs, we see him in the 
chamber over the gate, pacing the floor with agony, 
and crying in grief of the wildest kind, '' O my 
son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom ! would 
God 1 had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, 
my son !" And now, '' last scene of all," we be- 
hold him lying on his death-bed, and having placed 
the crown upon the head of Solomon, and given 
him a solemn charge, he takes once more the harp 
he loved so well, and tunes it to this touching 
strain : '* Although my house be not so with God, 
yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, 
ordered in all things, and sure ; this is all my sal- 
vation and all my desire ;" and so he fell asleep, 
and was gathered unto his fathers. 

Such are the main features of that life which is 
so briefly summarized in the words of my text : 
'* David served his own generation." It is not, 
however, my intention to dwell further upon the 
incidents of the Psalmist's history, but rather to fix 
your minds for a little on the principle which 
underlies this description of his career, and on its 
particular application to the great cause which I 
mean to-night to advocate. It will be evident at a 
glance that there is here established a connection 



The Christian Serving his Generation, 381 

between a man and his generation, such that the 
nature of the duties which he is called on to per- 
form is determined by the character of the age to 
which he belongs, and the circumstances in which 
his lot is cast. It may indeed be said that the age 
in which a man lives has fully as much influence 
upon him as he can have upon it, and in a sense 
that is true; but it is also true that the character 
of a man's times fixes, to a very large extent, the 
form of that service which he is required to render 
unto his God, so that thus the service of God, and 
the service of our generation, rightly understood, 
must be for us identical. The moral law, indeed, 
in its great essential principles of love to God and 
love to our neighbor, continues unalterable, but 
the modes which our obedience to that law 
assumes must be settled by the circumstances in 
which we are placed. The priest, the Levite, and 
the Samaritan, had they been brought together 
into conclave, might all have agreed as to the 
abstract meaning of the command, '' Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself" ; but for the Sama- 
ritan, the fact that the poor traveller lay before 
him half-dead, interpreted the law to mean, " Help 
that suffering one as you would wish to be helped 
if 3^ou were in his place," whereas to them it 
seemed to say, '* Pass by on the other side." He 
read the law through the circumstances in which 
he was placed ; they read it abstractly, and with- 
out an}^ reference to the case before them. He 
served God by serving the unfortunate man ; they 
were neither serving him nor serving God. Duty 



3S2 The Christian Serving his Generation, 

thus comes to be the application of the unchang- 
ing principles of the Gospel to the ever-varying 
circumstances of society; hence, it can never be 
stereotyped, but must be altered in its outward 
form, ever as the changing character of the time 
requires. Thus, it is always the Christian's duty 
to " hold fast that which is good," and '* earnestly 
to contend for the faith once delivered to the 
saints"; but in the case of an Athanasius, that 
duty meant to defend the doctrine of the Trinity ; 
while in the days of Luther, it signified to hold up 
the doctrine of justification by faith. Both of 
these men held the same great gospel truths, but 
the circumstances of their times called upon each 
especially to hold fast that with which the name of 
each has become identified. Now, the same thing 
holds in regard to efforts for the moral and spiritual 
well-being of mankind. It is always the Chris- 
tian's duty " to do good unto all men," and to seek 
" to have compassion on the ignorant, and them 
that are out of the way " ; but the particular form 
which his performance of that duty assumes must, 
of course, depend on the circumstances of those 
whose good is especially sought. The path I take 
in going after him who is out of the way must in 
the very nature of things, be regulated by that 
which the poor wanderer himself has chosen, 
otherwise I may as well not trouble myself about 
him. I must go after him, if I would overtake 
him ; but if 1 take another direction altogether, 
there is no likelihood that 1 shall ever benefit him. 
Hence, if I really mean to carry out the principles 



The Christian Serving his Generation. 383 

of the Gospel^t all, it is incumbent upon me, not 
only to understand what they are, but also to con- 
sider what are the special evils of my generation, 
and by what special application of these principles 
I am to meet them. Even as, in perfect consis- 
tency with the general principles of medical sci- 
ence, the remedy is changed to meet the disease ; 
so our efforts of practical benevolence, if they 
would be of any avail, must take their shape and 
direction from the evils that are rampant in the 
land. The traditional things of the past, there- 
fore, will not avail for the exigencies of the pre- 
sent ; the kind of instrumentality which was called 
into existence by the evils of a hundred years ago, 
will be utterly useless in meeting those of to-day ; 
and things which might then be safely enough left 
undone, may now be, yea, are, imperatively de- 
manded of us. Here, then, is the problem which we 
have each to solve, if we would really serve the 
present iige ; we must ask, '* What interpretation is 
given to God's law by the requirements of our 
time ? " What does the " Go-thou-and-do-like- 
wise " of our Lord to the lawyer mean now for 
me? Where shall I find for mj^self in these days 
the counterpart of that poor half-dead traveller? 
and what for me corresponds to the oil and the 
wine and the money which his benefactor gave? 
Where shall I find him ? I discover him in that 
little ragged Arab prowling about the streets of 
the midnight city, his hand against every man's, 
and every man's hand against him — a waif of hu- 
manity floating all uncared-for down the dark river 



384 The Christian Servifig his Generation, 

of iniquity ; and I open for him a ragged school. 
I discover him in that down-trodden sister stand* 
ing at the corner of the streets, with the mark of 
infamy on her brow, and the scorpion-sting of 
misery at her heart, an outcast from society, an 
object of loathing even to herself, compelled to 
sin for bread : I open for her a home of safety, 
and go forth at night to bid her come and welcome 
to its comfort. I discover him in the tenant of that 
filthy room, the air of which, poisoned by noxious 
impurity, is eating out the strength of his man- 
hood, and sinking him at once into physical and 
spiritual degradation; and I seek to raise for him 
a more comfortable and better ventilated abode. 
I discover him in that poor besotted drunkard in 
his cheerless home — if home it can be called — 
whence peace, and happiness, and love have long 
ago departed. I discover him in that drunkard's 
wife, whose pale, careworn face declares how the 
canker-worm of sorrow is eating at the heart, and 
bringing her down with sadness to the grave. I 
discover him in that drunkard's child for whose 
poor diseased and sickl}^ body the grave is already 
opening w^de ; and I become a total abstainer, 
and gird myself to do battle with the causes which 
have produced such dire results. 

In this service of our generation, however, 
where there are so many evils to contend against, 
it is expedient that there should be division of 
labor. Accordingly, as temperance reformers, 
the special department which we have chosen is 
that of dealing with drunkenness and its causes; 



The Christian Serving his Generation, 3^5 

but, while this is the case, we must not be under- 
stood as disparaging or in any way underrating 
the importance of those other spheres in which 
our excellent friends are working. Whatever be 
the particular object for which they are striving — 
whether it be sanitary reform, or the building of 
a better qlass of houses for the working-classes, or 
ragged-schools, or midnight meetings for the re- 
clamation of the fallen, or the promotion of a bet- 
ter system of holidays and recreation, or the bring- 
ing about of more thorough understanding between 
employers and employed, or the improvement of 
our commercial morality, we regard them as fel- 
low-workers with us, and ourselves as fellow- 
laborers with them. We are working to each 
other's hands ; their success will strengthen us, 
and our success will strengthen them. We have 
selected intemperance simply because it so con- 
stantly confronts us, and because we find it allied 
to all the other evils of our time; but, far from 
being jealous of their movements, we wish them 
all success, and bid them cordially God-speed. 
With this explanation, then, I proceed to show 
how we seek, as temperance reformers, to serve 
our generation and our God. 

I. We seek to do so, in the first place, by 
reclaiming the drunkard. It will not be disputed 
by any Christian that we should endeavor to save 
the drunkard ; nor will it be denied that there is 
an urgent call upon us to use all the means in our 
power for this purpose, from the immense number 
of those who are addicted to intemperance. The 



386 The Christian Serving his Generation. 

only question is as to how to do it. Now, there 
are here a few plain principles which have always 
been very satisfactory to my mind, and seera to 
settle the case. Abstinence is for the drunkard a 
physical necessity, if, at least, he would conquer 
his habit. For his habit is an appetite as well, 
having this peculiarity, that the least quantity of 
ardent spirits taken by him will act as a spark on 
gunpowder, and set the whole man on fire with the 
desire for more. Hence, if I wish to deliver him, 
I must endeavor to get him never to touch strong 
drink. But before 1 can prevail on him to be an 
abstainer, I must make his position, as such, an 
honorable one. He will never assume it if his doing 
so be cast up to him as a disgrace. He will rather 
die in his intemperance than become an abstainer 
to be pointed at by the drunkard and the moderate 
drinker alike, and to hear it said regarding him : 
" That man had to give up tasting strong drink to 
save himself from drunkenness." As Lieutenant 
Blackmore discovered that the poor fallen woman, 
much as she loathed her degradation, loathed still 
more the prison system that prevailed in the 
penitentiaries, and preferred to die in her sin rather 
than to be saved in such a way, so have we found 
it to be with the drunkard. If we mean to save 
him, therefore, we must stand on the same plat- 
form with him. Just as the Son of God, when he 
wished to save men, stooped himself to be a man, 
yet without the sin of man, so — I speak it in all 
reverence — we, if we mean to deliver the drunk- 
ard, must stoop to put ourselves on a level with 



The Christian Serving his Generation. 387 

him, while yet we are not partakers in his sin. We 
must make abstinence respectable by ourselves 
joining with him in his abstinence. We must do 
with him what we ask him to do for himself. The 
old temperance societies of thirty years ago failed 
because the drinks they permitted fed the appetite 
they wished to destroy. But, in like manner, the 
moderate drinker of our day will also fail to cure 
the drunkard by asking him to abstain, if he do not 
so far identify himself with him as to abstain along 
with him. Somewhere about thirteen years ago, 
the Sailors' Home, one of the noblest institutions 
in Liverpool, was discovered to be on fire. It was 
past midnight ; all the inmates had retired to rest, 
and were startled out of their slumber by the ter- 
rible alarm. The flames spread rapidly through- 
out the building, and from every door and window 
volumes of smoke streamed forth, so that, when 
the fire-brigade appeared upon the scene, it was 
at once apparent that nothing could be done to 
save it, and the whole energies of the force were 
directed to the rescuing of those who were as yet 
within it. A dense crowd of onlookers had al- 
ready gathered round, and many stout-hearted 
men came forth and volunteered their services in 
the perilous enterprise. A company of marines 
landed from a man-of-war at anchor in the Sloyne, 
and gave themselves right earnestly to the same 
noble work, until at length ninety-seven souls had 
been snatched by them from the jaws of death, and 
it seemed as if the whole were saved. And now 
men breathed freely as they looked upon the gor- 



388 The Christian Serving his Generation. 

geous spectacle of that massive building wreathed 
in fire ; but hark ! a piercing- shriek is heard high 
over the shouts of the multitude ; and yonder, on 
one of the upper ledges of the building, five men 
are seen calling for help. As soon as possible, the 
longest ladder on the spot is placed against the 
wall, right underneath where they are standing ; 
but, alas ! it reaches only to a point some twenty 
feet below the parapet whereon they are. An 
agony of disappointment wrings the heart of every 
onlooker as hope for their deliverance is sinking 
fast into despair. " Stand back," cries a resolute 
and courageous man, as, with another ladder on 
his shoulder, he places his foot upon the lowest 
round, and prepares with it to ascend to their re- 
lief. On him now all eyes are fixed. They watch 
him until he has reached the top of the long lad- 
der, and there he joins to it the one which he has 
borne with him. But, ah ! how bitter the disap- 
pointment again ! it also is too short. What now 
is to be done? There is no time to lose ; so. tak- 
ing the ladder up, he raises it until it rests upon 
his shoulders, and there, at the height of well-nigh 
fifty feet from the ground, standing on the one 
ladder, and adding his ozvn length to the other which 
ne carried, he calls to them to come down over 
him. The multitude beneath hold their breath in 
astonishment, afraid to utter a sound, lest they 
should mar the self-possession of the men ; but 
when, one after another, they have descended in 
safety, the air is rent with a most deafening cheer 
which makes the welkin ring. Thus, brethren, thus 



The Christian Serving his Generation, ^Sg 

must we save the drunkard from the devouring lire 
— the ladder even of abstinence will be too short 
unless we add ourselves to it, and make over our- 
selves a pathway for him into safety. 

II. But, in the second place, we seek, as tem- 
perance reformers, to serve our own generation 
by endeavoring to do away with the drinking cus- 
toms of society. No one can deny that the drunk- 
ard's appetite is at once created and strengthened 
by practices that are still, to a large extent, com- 
mon and fashionable in the land. It is not quite 
by accident, therefore, that there are so many an- 
nually ruined by intemperance among us : it oc- 
curs as the natural and inevitable consequence of 
customs to which the great majority do willingly 
conform. When we examine into those dreadful ca- 
tastrophes which are perpetually occurring in the 
midst of us, and which we write down to the ac- 
count of strong drink, we find that they are con- 
nected with an undercurrent in society, and that 
they are but the outgrowth and development of a 
system of things which is upheld and encouraged 
by all classes alike. At the critical turning-places 
of life, we meet these drinking customs as invari- 
ably as in our large towns we see a gin-shop at the 
corners of the streets; and though a young man 
enter upon the world untainted with the drunk- 
ard's appetite, he is gradually habituated to the 
use of strong drink by the very frequency with 
which it forces itself upon him. It dogs him from 
his cradle to his grave ; it haunts him at home and 
Abroad ; it presides in the workshop and in the 



590 The Christian Serving his Generation, 

market-place ; business cannot be transacted with- 
out it ; pleasure cannot be enjo3^ed without it ; 
wherever he goes, the bottle is the central object 
of attraction, and so he becomes enamored of it 
before he dare coniess it to himself; he is on the 
outermost edge of the whirlpool before he is 
aware, and once there — 

' Vain ! vain is his struggle, the circle now wins him, 

Round and round in its dance the mad element spins him." 

Do I speak what is not true, my brethren, in all 
this ? I ask every one of you to look back, for a 
few moments, to the beginning of his own career. 
Think of those who lived with you, long ago, in 
the same street of your native town ; of those who 
played with you in the games of your childhood ; 
of those who sat with you on the same form at 
school ; of those who wrought with you in the 
same workshop, studied with you in the same class, 
or entered with you on the same profession. Trace 
out their after-history as far as you are able ; how 
many of them have fallen before this dreadfuJ 
drink — and how did they fall ? Not Irom any in- 
herent liking for it at first — not from any want of 
intellectual ability — not from any original defi- 
ciency in moral training — but because they were 
caught in the meshes of these abominable customs, 
and ensnared before they knew they were in dan- 
ger. Who has not known even ministers of the 
Gospel, who, in the outset of their labors, gave 
high promise of usefulness and success, but were 
ruined by nothing else than conforming to the 



The Christian Serving his Generation, 39 ^ 

drinking customs of their congregations, and at 
length thrown off, as worthless and dissipated 
wretches, by the very individuals who had helped 
to make them so? To attempt, therefore, to put 
a stop to drunkenness without dealing with these 
customs is very much like trying to cure the dis- 
ease by simpl}^ treating the symptoms, while no- 
thing is done to reach the seat of the evil. When a 
man is all covered with blotches and blains, his 
physician does not simply try to close up these by 
external applications, for as soon as one disappears 
another forms ; but he finds that the whole system 
is deranged, and sets himself principally and espe- 
cially to put that right, well knowing that the 
healing of the ulcers must follow as a thing of 
course. Now, the drunkenness of our times is just 
analogous to such ulcerations on the human body ; 
it betokens that the entire system of society is dis- 
eased ; and, if we mean to do any good to our gen- 
eration, it is to that we must strenuously apply 
ourselves. And how are we to do it ? Personal 
abstinence may accomplish much ; and we will 
not undervalue it, for we know that wherever one 
such abstainer appears at a dinner-table or in 
company, the drinking proceeds slowl}^ ; the 
wheels of the bottle drag heavily ; there is a non- 
conductor at the feast, and the glor}^ of it forth- 
with departs. It is something thus to put the 
moderate drinker on the defensive, and force him 
to apologize for his position, but still, mere indi- 
vidual abstinence will not here suffice ; we must 
bind ourselves to have neither part nor lot in the 



59^ The CJiristian Serving his Generation, 

matter; we must give no countenance whatever 
to these pernicious practices, and publicly declare 
that we will neither give nor take strong drink as 
an ordinary beverage. This is the position ab- 
stainers have taken up, and, as it seems to me, it is 
the only one which can enable us to say that we, 
at least, are no longer responsible for the intem- 
perance of the country. In this way alone shall 
we be able to elevate the moral tone of the com- 
munity, and cure that diseased state of the social 
system out of which intemperance has sprung. 
And surely, in a land whose fields have run red 
with the blood of those who laid themselves on 
the altar for the cause of liberty, there can be no 
valid objection raised against the bond of this our 
covenant, for slaver}^ was not more detrimental to 
the interests of the nation than intemperance is to 
its moral and spiritual w^ell-being. But why need 
we argue this point ? Have not the effects already 
produced by the temperance movement clearly 
proved that, in this department of our labors, we 
have taken the proper course ? Let any one con- 
trast the public sentiment, in the matter of these 
customs, in these days, with the views which were 
held and acted on thirty, or forty, or fifty years 
ago, and he will at once discover how much pro- 
gress we have made. It may be said, indeed, that 
all this is due to a higher tone of religion existing 
in the midst of us, and I admit it ; but then, I con- 
tend that this higher spirituality has taken shape 
and form in the action of our temperance societies, 
and that through them, mainlj^ its influence has 



The Christian Serving his Generation, 393 

been exerted. Now, in all this there is certainly 
much to encourage us ; but '^ there remaineth yet 
very much land to be possessed." God, by this 
partial success, is onl}^ showing us that we are 
working in the right direction, and by the right 
instrumentality ; therefore let us work on. Time 
was when the work had to be done in the face of 
the bitterest opposition, the most biting sarcasm, 
and the most withering scorn; but now that we 
have silenced all these batteries, shall we think of 
giving over, and resting on our guns? Nay^ veri- 
ly, let us not slacken our exertions until these 
practices shall be numbered among the things that 
are obsolete and effete, and the bottle and the glass 
shrll be labelled, and laid by on the shelves of our 
museums, as the relics of a bygone age. We may 
not, perhaps, live to sec this time, but " it's coming 
yet for all that," and ours shall be the satisfaction 
of having done our part to hasten its approach ; 
if we may not, like Solomcn^ build the temple of 
temperance, 'tis ours, like Lavid, to fight the bat- 
tles by Avhich are to be obtained the materials for 
its construction. 

III. But, thirdly, we seek, as temperance re- 
formers, to serve our generation by dealing witli 
the ti'affic in strong drink. The traffic and the 
customs are closely interlinked. They act and re- 
act upon each other — the customs feed the traffic, 
and the traffic perpetuates and increases the cus- 
toms; hence it would be useless to attempt to do 
away with the one without dealing with the other. 
And it is in this department of our labors that we 



394 The Christian Serving his Generation. 

have the greatest difficulty to contend with, for 
here we have the law of the land coming in and 
giving its sanction and protection to the dealers in 
strong drink. The readers of John Bunyan's *' Pil- 
grim's Progress" will remember the scene in the 
house of Interpreter, where Christian is shown a 
fire which continues to burn brightly in spite of 
the efforts of an individual to extinguish it by con- 
stantly pouring water into it; and, when he can 
give no account of this apparent anomaly, he is 
taken to the other side of the wall, where he be- 
holds another man perpetually supplying it with 
oil. That scene has a sacred significance in the 
experience of the Christian ; but, ah me ! it has its 
counterpart, too, in the devil's edition of his pil- 
grim's progress. Behold it here! policemen, 
magistrates, judges in their several departments, 
and temperance reformers, by their special efforts 
are all seeking to throw water on the devouring 
fire of intemperance which is burning constantly 
in the land, but all seems to be in vain. Why? 
Because, when we look on the other side, we dis- 
cover licensing bureaus pouring in oil to perpetu- 
ate the flame. Was there ever a more palpable 
instance of building up with the one hand what we 
are seeking to pull down by the other — of undoing 
by one act what is sought to be accomplished by 
another ? One can have some admiration for 
Penelope, as we see her sytematically unweaving 
by night the web which she has woven in the day, 
for it was her constancy to her absent lord that 
prompted it ; but when men's temporal and eter 



The Christian Serving his Generation. 395 

nal interests are at stake, and when we see indi- 
viduals in authority making thus a plaything of 
the souls of men, it is impossible for us to restrain 
our indignation, or to forbear asking the question : 
''Shall the th.rone of iniquity have fellowship with 
us, which frameth mischief by a law?" How 
long, then, is this state of things to continue? So 
long, and only so long, as the people of the land 
permit it. Let us rouse them, therefore, from their 
indifference ; let us endeavor, by every means in 
our power, to awaken them to a right idea of their 
duty in the matter, and stir them up to demand a 
general law which shall make it illegal to traffic in 
the souls of men by dealing in strong drink. This, 
and nothing short of this, is the aim we have set 
before us. This is the '* Sabbath and port of our 
labors," and till this be accomplished we are deter- 
mined not to slacken our efforts, nor ^' to bate a 
jot of heart and hope, but still bear up, and steej 
right onward." Each point we gain shall become 
SI battery, from which we shall assault another out- 
work; and thus, by ever-narrowing parallels, we 
shall press in and in, until we breach the very cita- 
del of drinkdom, and plant upon it the standard of 
our victory. We seek no easy and superficial suc- 
cess ; we have learned to labor, but we have also 
learned to wait; we are content to make haste' 
slowly, if only we may thereb}^ keep what we have 
gained; we do not want a J^ictory which shall be 
worse than a defeat. And when those who will 
not work with us act the part of Sanballat, and 
mockingly say, " What do these feeble Jews — will 



39^ The Christian Serving his Generation. 

they make an end in a day ? " we make reply with 
Nehemiah : '' We are doing a great work, and we 
cannot come down; why should the work ceas-:: 
while we leave it and come down to you ?" 

But in prosecuting this arduous work, we are 
met with many objectors. " You cannot make 
men moral by legislation," says one. ^' We can at 
least insist that they shall not be made immoral by 
it," we reply ; and so, as far as that goes, we are 
on an equality. " But the law will be broken," say 
others, *' and you will have shebeens and low drink- 
ing-places without end." '' Not at all," we say, 
*' provided the law rest upon and rise out of the 
convictions of the people, and do not go before 
them. Let the people be thoroughly in earnest in 
the matter, and then we shall see the law thoroughly 
enforced. But even if it should be disobeyed, what 
then? Is God to repeal the Seventh Commandment 
because there are so many houses of bad fame 
among us? Or are our legislators to relax the 
vigor of our criminal law because there are so 
many dens of thieves in the land ? Away with 
all these subterfuges ! If you were but in earnest, 
you would brush them from your path as easily as 
you do the gossamer of the morning. '' But," ex- 
claims another, '* it is an interference with trade, 
and it is cruel to the publican." Now, while we 
hate the traffic, it by no means follows that we 
hate the men, and I Ijonestly believe we shall be 
doing them a deed of loving-kindness by compel- 
ling them to seek anotlier occupation. I have 
lately gone ovci- in \\\\ \\\\v-A the histories of all the 



The Christian Serving his Generation. 397 

spirit-dealers who were in a provincial town in 
Scotland of about 20,000 inhabitants, some ten 
years ago, and, so far as I can remember them, 
there are only three or four of the whole number 
who have not themselves, or their wives, or their 
sons, or their daughters, fallen under the curse of 
strong drink. And in Liverpool, as I was informed 
by a medical man there, the average duration of 
life for a man after he begins to keep a gin-shop is 
not much over seven years. Now, is it cruel to 
take men out of a trade like that ? But even sup- 
posing there were no such risks in it to the men 
themselves, are the interests of the community, I 
ask, to be sacrificed to the aggrandizement of one 
class iu it? In this matter I am not ashamed to 
avow myself a protectionist, and I ask the law 
to give me its assistance. I can prevent a man 
from storing up gunpowder in the same street with 
me, and no one calls that an undue interference 
with trade; but I confess that I would rather live 
next door to a powder magazine than to a gin- 
shop ; for, in the one case, every precaution would 
be taken to avoid all danger, while, in the other, 
every means would be employed to make it 
greater. I demand, therefore, as a Christian mi- 
nister, that my flock be protected from the conta 
mination of such places. I claim, as a Christian 
parent, that my children shall not be everlastingly 
ruined by the flaring temptations of those gilded 
gateways into hell. 

But now I must conclude, and it shall be with 
a word — 



39^ The Christian Serving his Generation. 

1. To those who are working with us in this 
cause. To you, my brethren, I would say, labor 
religiously in the work. It is God's cause, there- 
fore engage in it as such, and ask his blessing on 
it. One of the most pleasing features of the Scot- 
tish Temperance League, with which I was long 
connected, was that it took this decidedly reli- 
gious stand upon the question of intemperance, and 
sought, in all its movements, thoroughly to ac- 
knowledge God. To this I trace all that prosper- 
ity which has made it the foremost temperance 
organization in the world. Let us imitate this, 
and to this end let there be unity and peace in the 
midst of us; for as the electric wires will not work 
in a thunder-storm, so no prayer-message ascends 
to the ear of God from a disunited and conten- 
tious company. 

2. And now a word to those who are not work- 
ing with us. Permit me to ask you why you have 
not joined us ? "• Because," you reply, " you put 
total abstinence in the place of the Gospel." But 
we do not. I will appeal to yourselves if those 
ministers who are most prominently identified with 
this movement are not also as well known for their 
earnest, faithful preaching of the Gospel. It is the 
very earnestness of their Christian convictions 
that has made them abstainers, and, so long as in- 
temperance continues to rage among us, it will 
always be found that a revived piety develops 
itself in this direction. Need I appeal to the con- 
sequences of recent revivals in proof of this? 
Why, then, should we be so misunderstood ? I 



The Christian Serving his Generation. 399 

would that men would only look on abstinence as 
they do on other things. Take, for example, the 
efforts for maintaining a house of refuge for the 
fallen. Why don't you go to the promoters of 
that scheme, and say, '' We cannot help you, for 
you are putting your homes in the place of the 
Gospel " ? '' No," you answer, *' they put them in- 
to these homes, in order to bring them under the 
influence of the Gospel." And what else are we 
doing with the drunkard ? I believe there is not 
an abstaining minister who has not in his church 
members who formerly were drunkards, but were 
first led by him to abstinence, and then from ab- 
stinence to Christ. Behold yonder vessel labor- 
ing amid the breakers, and going to pieces upon 
the rocks ; wave after wave is dashing over her, 
and the crew have taken to the rigging, and are 
in momentary peril of a watery grave. What 
means that spirit-stirring cheer rising from the 
shore ? It is the crowd encouraging the gallant 
men to launch the life-boat, and put out to their 
relief. But why does no one run to them, and ex- 
postulate with them thus : '■' They will not be per- 
fectly safe in that boat ; they cannot be cut of 
danger until they are on shore, and you are put- 
tmg the boat in the place of the shore " ? Oh ! how 
like drivelling idiocy does your argument sound 
in such a case as that ; but that case, my brethren, 
is ours. Yonder, stranded on the rock of intem- 
perance, is a gallant vessel, and fathers, mothers, 
brothers, sisters, neighbors, are on board, with de- 
struction yawning underneath them. Here, in 



40'" The Christian Servt^ig his Generation. 

Christ, is the true and only shore of safety ; but 
how shall we get them brought to him ? how, but 
by this our life-boat of abstinence ? Our cry to 
you this night, therefore, is, '' Man the life-boat ' 
Man the life-boat !" and if you be men, not to say 
Christians, you will give a hearty response there- 
to. But, oh, if you do not, then come with me to 
Calvary, and see how your indifference appears in 
the light of that sacrifice which Jesus made upon 
the cross for you ; yea, come with m'e to the judg- 
ment throne, and see how it will look when the 
Lord, the Judge, shall say, '' Inasmuch as ye did 
it not for one of the least of these, my brethren, ye 
did It not for me." 



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